Market Recap - January 13, 2009

It was another lame day on Wall Street today, as the Dow Jones fell for the 5th straight time. The Dow dropped 25.41 points (-.3%), the S&P 500 rose only 1.49 points (.2%), and the Nasdaq gained 7.67 points (.5%). As you can tell from the puny percentage gains/losses of the major indexes, nothing too crazy happened.

Investors are still anxiously waiting for the 4th quarter earnings of most companies to come out in the upcoming days and weeks. Due to the uncertainty of exactly how bad the earnings of most companies will be, most investors are being very cautious and are hesitating to make bold moves in the market.

The big news after the market closed had to do with Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, two giant financial institutions. Citigroup agreed to sell 51% of its stake in its successful retail brokerage business, Smith Barney, to Morgan Stanley in an effort to build up cash and avoid more financial problems. This move by Citigroup shows how desperate the beaten-down bank has become to shore up its financial situation, as Smith Barney was one of the only positive things happening for the company.

Until Tomorrow,

Niki Pezeshki
College Trillionaire