Pension Pulse

Why do strange things always happen on Friday afternoon? In the latest edition of freaky Friday, we saw some interesting announcements. First, Wall Street rejoiced on news that president-elect Obama was likely to nominate New York Fed president Timothy Geithner for Treasury Secretary : Wall Street put a stop to a terrifying decline and stormed higher Friday as President-elect Barack Obama appeared ready to tap the chief of the New York Federal Reserve as the next treasury secretary and hand him the herculean task of righting the U.S. financial system. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had broken even for the day until news of the nomination leaked about an hour before the close, raced upward and finished 494 points higher, a rally of more than 6 1/2 percent. The outbreak of buying pushed the Dow above 8,000 -- a figure that would have seemed like a nightmare three months ago but on Friday was a relief for Americans who have watched their investments and retirement savings drain a...

Stocks plunged for a second straight day Thursday, falling to levels not seen in at least five years, as financial and energy stocks tumbled while demand for the safety of government debt spiked : Wall Street saw the most intense selling late in the session after hopes faded that lawmakers would quickly assemble an aid package for U.S. automakers, and as the Standard & Poor's 500 index broke through lows established in 2002. That breach of a key technical threshold sent a shudder through the market and touched off further selling. The S&P 500 index fell 6.7 percent to its lowest close since April 1997. The Dow Jones industrial average, meanwhile, fell 445 points, or 5.6 percent, to its lowest close since March 2003. The decline brings the Dow's two-day drop to 873 points, or 10.6 percent, its worst two-day percentage loss since October 1987. Financial stocks plunged on worries that the government's financial rescue won't be sufficient to cover banks' losses....

Stocks got clobbered today as the Dow fell below 8,000 and the S&P fell to a five-year low : Wall Street hit levels not seen since 2003 on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average plunging below the 8,000 mark amid a dour economic outlook from the Federal Reserve and worries over the fate of Detroit's three automakers. A cascade of selling occurred in the final minutes of the session as investors yanked money out of the market. For many, the real fear is that the recession might be even more protracted if Capitol Hill is unable to bail out the troubled auto industry. Investors also scoured economic data that included minutes from the last meeting of the Federal Reserve in which policymakers lowered projections for economic activity this year and next. Economic worries caused across-the-board selling, with financial stocks particularly hard hit. Citigroup ( C ) lost almost $2 today, down 23%, as the credit-default swap spreads on its debt widened after the bank took on m...

Wall Street rebounded today in another turbulent session, as investors rushed back into the market after the Standard & Poor's 500 index tested a 2003 low : The market, which had been down four of the past five sessions, has been volatile amid worries about how long a recession might be. That's driven many retail investors to the sidelines, while big institutional traders like hedge funds keep major stock indexes vacillating. That was the case on Tuesday as stocks rallied in the final hour of trading. At least some of the buying was because fund managers whose portfolios are tied to the S&P 500 had to find a replacement for Anheuser-Busch Cos. The brewer was officially removed from trading at the market's close after its takeover by Belgium's InBev SA was completed. Investors also used the market's big drop earlier in the session as chance to scoop up undervalued stocks. There was some encouragement about corporate earnings after Hewlett-Packard Co. said fou...

Another volatile day in the stock market as stocks swung wildly before finishing lower as recession worries deepen : Wall Street finished sharply lower Monday as investors pored over more signs of economic weakness, including a huge round of layoffs in the financial sector. After a turbulent week that sent the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 340 points, investors found little solace in the latest news. Stocks zigzagged throughout the session, finally giving way to a stream of late-day selling that left the Dow Jones industrials lower by 223 points. In a signal that banks are still struggling in the wake of massive losses tied to bad mortgage debt, Citigroup Inc. is cutting another 53,000 jobs in the coming quarters. The company said that in addition to job cuts, it plans to lower expenses by about 20 percent and has reduced its assets by more than 20 percent since the first quarter of the year. Citigroup ( C ) is currently trading at $8.89 and my prediction is that when it's all ...