The Week Ahead: The mortgage industry finally received some reprieve last week when the Bank of America invested 2 billion dollars into the ailing mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.
Although this caused some upbeat momentum, it was short lived, as credit worries still continue to plague the market. On August 17th the Fed Bank cut its lending rate by .50bp, which resulted in the market jumping 230 points on the Dow Jones.
The stock market had some follow through this week, closing up or flat, for the first three days. However it seems like the moment there is any hint of credit crunch; the market gives back all gains. There is major speculation that unless the FOMC doesn't cut rates, then as soon as the next major set of bad news comes around, the market will potentially give back everything they gained from the fed cut and then some.
Next week we are going to get a sneak peak into the consumer's financial health. With consumer spending data being released, The Consumer Confidence report is on Tuesday and Personal Spending and Personal Income on Friday.
Both reports could possibly be market moving, as the market has been focusing its spotlight of attention on the credit of consumers. Also on Monday there is existing home sales figures, which with the credit market drying up, would probably be down. With little possibility of good news the outlook for the near future seems to be Bearish-Neutral.
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