Market Recap - January 16, 2009

The market edged up on Friday, as the Dow Jones gained 68.73 (.84%) and the S&P 500 also rose 6.38 (.76%). 

Trading was erratic, though, as investors were concerned about the health of the banking industry.  Citigroup (C) released its miserable 4^th quarter results, as it announced an $8.29 billion loss.  Bank of America (BAC) also lost $2.39 billion last quarter. 

The stock market is now just a big tug-of-war game in which horrible news tries to push the market down while hope that the economy will soon stabilize pushes the market up. 

This past week, the horrible news beat out the optimism, as the S&P 500 closed the week down 4.5% from last Friday’s close.

Next week will be very interesting again, as we can expect depressing quarterly earning reports to compete against the hype that will stem from Obama’s inauguration and more talk about bailouts from the federal government.  Who will win the tug-of-war next week? Only time will tell.

Until next week,

 

Niki Pezeshki

College Trillionaire