Where all the hope and confidence in the child that was elected 
president ?  In a time when the government should be cutting spending 
and reducing taxes to bolster the private sector the liberal democrats 
pass that largest single expenditure in US history and take spending to 
levels never before seen.  The markets are right and BO is learning on 
the job.  4 years may end up seeming like eternity.


======================================

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090217/wall_street.html?.v=64

AP
Doubts about stimulus drag stocks down sharply
Tuesday February 17, 7:34 pm ET 
By Madlen Read, AP Business Writer  
Doubts about stimulus, bailout drag stocks to within sight of lowest 
close in 5 1/2 years 


NEW YORK (AP) -- Doubts that the government's stimulus and bank bailout 
programs can stop the global economic freefall dragged Wall Street to 
within a fraction of a point of its lowest close in 5 1/2 years Tuesday.

As President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus bill and 
automakers scrambled to come up with restructuring plans, investors 
waited anxiously for more specifics about efforts to rescue the economy.

"The government has their hand on the tiller. They're steering. And 
that's the problem. The markets are not confident the proper course has 
been set yet," said Henry Herrmann, chief executive officer at 
investment management firm Waddell & Reed.

Richard E. Cripps, chief market strategist for Stifel Nicolaus, said 
Tuesday's drop represented "a crescendo, if you will, of uncertainty. 
We're still in that period where more information needs to come out."

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 297.81 points, or 3.79 
percent, at 7,552.60 -- just 31-hundredths of a point above its post-
meltdown Nov. 20 close of 7,552.29, which was its lowest close since 
March 12, 2003. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 37.67, or 4.56 
percent, to 789.17.

Worries about ailing banks, struggling automakers, tumbling home prices 
and cash-strapped consumers are threatening to push U.S. stocks back to 
levels not seen since the late 1990s.

Tuesday's trading session followed sharp pullbacks on overseas exchanges 
as investors around the world considered the likelihood of a delayed 
recovery. And over the weekend, a meeting of Group of Seven finance 
ministers failed to produce any specific steps to revive the global 
financial system.

"We don't think the recession's over until at least the middle of the 
year, and that's even starting to seem very early," said JPMorgan 
equities analyst Thomas J. Lee, adding that the market's worries are 
"nothing new -- the magnitudes are worse."

Obama is scheduled to discuss a program Wednesday on preventing 
foreclosures, but investors are especially anxious for details from the 
Treasury Department about its new rescue plan for the troubled banking 
sector.

The stock market is usually regarded as a forward-looking mechanism, but 
Lee pointed out that about one-third of the time, the S&P recovered 
around the same time as the economy.

"I'm tilting toward thinking we're going to have lows in mid-July," Lee 
said.

Investors are questioning whether the major indexes will breach their 
lows of last November, when investor fears ran high.

During that period, the Dow came within 102 points of the five-year 
trading low of 7,449.37, and the S&P came with 48 points of its 11-year 
low of 741.02.

On Tuesday, the Nasdaq composite index fell 63.70, or 4.15 percent, to 
close at 1,470.66. The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks fell 
19.46, or 4.34 percent, to 428.90.

Only 219 stocks rose on the New York Stock Exchange, while 2,898 fell. 
Volume came to 1.61 billion shares. Investors fled from stocks and 
flocked instead to Treasurys, sending government debt yields lower.

The retreat in U.S. stocks occurred alongside a pullback in markets 
overseas. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.4 percent, and 
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 3.79 percent.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 2.43 percent; Germany's DAX index 
fell 3.44 percent; and France's CAC-40 fell 2.94 percent. In Latin 
America, Brazil's Ibovespa index plunged 4.8 percent, and Mexico's IPC 
index fell 3.4 percent.

One big worry on Wall Street in particular is that General Motors Corp. 
and Chrysler LLC might not be able to repay billions of dollars in loans 
and return to profitability.

GM has already received $9.4 billion from the government and could get 
another $4 billion if the Treasury Department signs off on its viability 
plan. Chrysler, which has already borrowed $4 billion, said Tuesday in 
its restructuring plan that it wants another $5 billion -- $2 billion 
more than its initial request of $3 billion in additional financing.

GM shares dropped 32 cents, or 12.8 percent, to $2.18. Chrysler's shares 
are not publicly traded. The White House said Tuesday it has not closed 
the door to a government-backed automaker bankruptcy.

The biggest fear in the market is not that the stocks of banks and 
automakers will get wiped out. If all the Dow companies involved in 
financial services or automaking -- American Express Co., Bank of 
America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., General Electric 
Co. and General Motors Corp. -- saw their shares sink to zero right now, 
the Dow would only lose about 400 points, or 5 percent.

Rather, the concern is that these ailing industries will keep hobbling 
the broader financial system and the economy. On Tuesday, Wall Street 
got another dose of grim economic news -- the New York Federal Reserve 
said its regional index of manufacturing activity is showing the 
sharpest contraction in February since it started the gauge in 2001.

Not even slightly better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results 
from the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., could help buoy 
stocks. The market recently has shrugged off bits of stronger-than-
anticipated corporate data as anomalies rather than harbingers of 
improvement. There is a "tendency to dismiss them as, at the moment, not 
relevant," Herrmann said.

Wal-Mart reported operating earnings of $1.03 per share for the quarter 
ended Jan. 31, compared with analysts' expectations for earnings of 99 
cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters. But the company also said 
first-quarter earnings could miss Wall Street expectations.

Wal-Mart was only company among the 30 Dow components to rise Tuesday. 
Its shares rose $1.71, or 3.68 percent, to $48.24.

Bank stocks were the biggest losers of the day, but nearly all sectors 
performed badly on Tuesday -- including technology, energy and airlines.

Insurance companies were hit hard, too. Allstate Corp. fell $2.09, or 
9.8 percent, to $19.14, and MetLife Inc. fell $2.71, or 10 percent, to 
$24.09.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite 
its price, fell to 2.65 percent from 2.90 percent late Friday. The yield 
on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, 
rose marginally to 0.29 percent from 0.28 percent late Friday. U.S. 
markets were closed on Monday.

The dollar rose against other major currencies. Gold prices also rose.

Oil prices fell $2.58 to $34.93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile 
Exchange.

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

CMPQwk 1.42-21 9999 
Barak Obama thinks we can spend our way to prosperity .....



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