Weekly Market Update -Jan 12th

We had another rocky week in the markets with the major averages all losing ground again. Sub-prime and Credit news continue to dog the market. We'll see if earnings next week from Citigroup and Merrill have any impact on the market -more writedowns are expected.

Big news this week -Bank of America bails out Countrywide (see below), Gold hits $900, and food commodities continue to rise. Oil lost more ground on recession fears and closed out the week around $93. The market is expecting more interest rate cuts later this month which could send the US Dollar down and raise gold prices even further.

Next week we have earnings announcements from key companies like: C, MER, JPM, WM, GE, IBM, INTC. Market direction is still uncertain at this point, though there is good support for the S&P 500 here in the 1400 range; the Nasdaq could still go down to test the March 2007 lows of around 2350, likewise for the DOW. The Financials are anybody's guess!

Links: S&P Sector performance -it helps to be in the right sectors.

Market News:
U.S. Stocks Drop for Third Week
..share prices posted their worst opening five days since the 1930s
U.S. stocks to face earnings, data tests next week
Bank of America to buy Countrywide Financial
Merrill may write down $15 billion
Citi, Merrill on hunt for more capital
In case of emergency, slash rates
U.S. gold futures hit record $900/oz on funds
Stocks and Indexes mentioned in this blog are for educational and illustration purposes only.