The week started weak with the Empire State Index down to levels not seen for 7 years. The DOW closed down 224 points.

Tuesday HD beat their numbers but guided negatively. The PPI was down in October and Uncle Ben was less than convincing in his testimony before the House. The DOW finally closed up 151 points after a volatile session.

Wednesday, the CPI dropped by an unprecedented amount and the automakers began their Capitol Hill testimony. Mix all of that in with an ugly housing starts number and you have the recipe for a 427 point drop in the DOW.

Thursdays’ Jobless Claims were up to record levels while job cuts at JPM, SLE, and AKAM underscored the measures that ate being taken in corporate America to trim costs. The automakers were told to go back and put together a business plan (imagine that!?) before resubmitting their collective request for a bridge loan of 25 billion from the government. The DOW was off 445 points.

The week ended on an up note with the DOW closing 494 points north. C was in meetings trying to come up with a game plan to save the bank. The GSEs FNM and FRE decided to suspend foreclosures during the holiday season. Finally, the announcement of Timothy Geithner as the new Secretary of the Treasury sent the market higher in late day trading.

All of the indexes closed down week over week with the DOW down 451 the SPX off 73 and the COMPQ negative by 133.

For more help in trading strategies, this is what I recommend.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites