Stock Market Update -Jan 18th

We started off the week with continued selling, though we may have seen a turnaround on Thursday and Friday as Bank of America and Citigroup reported huge losses, and the government stepped in to provide even more money to prop up these failed banks. B of A will continue to fumble along, trying to deal with the losses from the Countrywide and Merrill Lynch acquisitions. Citi split the company into two separate businesses this week. Also in the financial markets, the European Central Bank lowered its interest rate to 2.00%, and two more banks were shut down by regulators this week.

Oil prices continued to fall, and new weekly unemployment claims jumped past the 500,000 mark again this past week. Foreclosures topped 2.3 million units for 2008, an 81% increase over the previous year! And the national debt clock now stands at around $10.666 trillion.


Here's a look at Bank of America and Citi over the past year...


Next week we get more earnings from major companies including IBM, Google, Apple, Microsoft, GE, Johnson & Johnson, and some of the airlines. We could see a positive turn in the markets depending on the reaction to earnings, and of course the big event next week, the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.

Brutal job losses continue in 2009
Bank of America may shed 35,000 jobs
Circuit City to shut down
Doomsayers warn: 'No recovery before 2010'
The Bush economic legacy: The U.S.'s decade of descent

Is Financial Crisis Growing Worse—Or Is It Just Us?
Bank stocks plunge on fresh insolvency fears
Barclays: Crushed
Worst Is Over for Banks—Not Economy: Pimco's Gross
How the Government Forced BofA to Marry Merrill Lynch
Stocks and Indexes mentioned in this blog are for educational and illustration purposes only.