January 23, 2009
January 23, 2009 by admin
The stock market turned it’s attention to corporate earnings this week and the results have been damaging to investors and confidence for the market. The market has seen several days of steep sell offs following corporate earnings from some of the worlds largest companies (Microsoft, GE, Google). While the earnings for the fourth quarter of 2008 in most cases was in line with most analysts expectations, the lack of guidence and certainty moving forward into 2009 has been a challenge for almost every major company.
Lending rates are still hovering near historic low levels (fixed mortgage rates in the low 5% range) and mortgage refinancing applications have jumped up sharply in the past thirty days. The news out of the banking sector is not very positive as many top analysts believe that the nations largest banks (Citigroup & Bank of America) remain severly undercapitalized, and could need hundreds of billions of dollars in the future.
International markets have remained jittery over the past two weeks. The GDP report for Great Britain has confirmed that their economy has shrunk during the last two quarters as they face similar problems to the U.S. market and are struggling to support home values and job growth. The weekend may provide a few days of much needed cooling off for the stock markets around the world as investors have continued to pull out of equity positions at a record pace.