Stocks traded lower on news that consumer spending has dropped for a record sixth month in a row. The irony is that some Wall Street types wanting to shift blame away from themselves for the banking meltdown point fingers at the American consumer and our collectively low savings rate. And when we stop spending and start saving...

Bank stocks surged today on the Obama administration’s “bad-bank” plan, which could absorb some banks’ most toxic assets. The current thinking is that the FDIC would manage this entity. The goal, of course, is to try to get banks to...

It looks like the S&P 500 is giving us two inside days in a row.  An “inside day” is a technical analysis term that refers to a day in which the total high - low price range is within the bounds of the previous day’s high - low price range. After Tuesday’s drop, Wednesday saw a rally back, with its lows higher than Tuesday’s low...

Stocks looked like they might be able to stage a nice rally today, but gave back early gains by late morning. The VIX, the CBOE’s volatility index, dropped to back under 50% on the indecisive market moves, suggesting again that the fear...

The market staged a massive rally off of lows in the last 90 minutes of the trading day, with S&P 500 futures being down nearly 30 points during the morning, only to be up 4 points at the time of this writing. But with all this intraday volatility, it’s anyone’s guess where it’ll close. It was all banking news today. Bank of America...

Stocks are getting pummeled today on news that retail sales dropped more than twice as much as was forecast in December. The health of the banking sector came into focus again on reports from Morgan Stanley that HSBC may need to raise $30 billion in capital and halve its dividend to survive, and that Deutsche Bank...

The market continued last week’s drop today with lower oil prices pulling down stocks in the energy sector and fears that Alcoa (AA) will report worse than expected earnings after the close, which could signal worse earnings....

Bad news on the job front pushed the market lower today, with the S&P 500 down 1.8%, the Dow Industrials down 1.36%, and the NASDAQ down 2.36% at the time of this writing. That’s enough to put the S&P 500 and Dow down so far for 2009, and the NASDAQ barely clinging to a modest gain.  The unemployment rate climbed to ...

The market opened lower and was much weaker this morning as WalMart’s weak December sales and reduced earnings outlook increased the fear...

The EIA reported today that inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillates showed a bigger-than-expected increase last week, which drove oil down 12% at the time of this writing. That’s the largest drop in seven years. One of....

One of the most widely held stocks in the contest is Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS), the gaming company that runs casinos and hotels worldwide. It has experienced a nice run higher in the past couple of days as reports that the New Years business in Las Vegas was better than expected, and that the cheaper...

The market today couldn’t keep a meager rally going. The S&P 500 are down about .5% at the time of this writing, but don’t seem to have much of an inclination to drop further,  either. Auto sales numbers were predictably bad, but GM and F were able to stay higher on the day.  But concerns over weak earnings in the coming...

The market is kicking 2009 off with a nice, broad rally today.  Oil is rallying on increased tensions in the Middle East, and the news that Russia shut off supplies of natural gas to Ukraine.....

Could it be that the auto companies could teach the banks what to do with bailout money? Amongst the news about GM...

With ProLogis (PLD) featured prominently in the top 5 contestants’ portfolios, its 15% drop at the time of this writing could reshuffle the leader board. The stock is down on nervousness about the real estate sector as the

It’s awfully quiet out there today. The major indices are noodling around without much interest in doing anything significant.

Many of the most actively traded stocks in the contest are having trouble getting any traction in the market.  Both (F) Ford and (GM), along with some of the more popular energy names are seeing some significant drops.

Doesn’t anybody care any more?  No, I’m not talking about the holiday spirit. With the S&P 500 down 20 points at the time of this writing, what’s the VIX doing?  The CBOE’s volatility index is down .50.