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Jan 19
2009
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A Moment of Hope Amid the Deepening GloomPosted by 0 in stimulus, Obama, Innaguration |
January 19, 2009 -
With hundreds of thousands cheering, chanting and dancing at his back, President-elect Barack Obama took in a star-studded opening ceremony on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and urged Americans to hold fast to common hopes in tough times.
The mood of the "We Are One" celebration was alternately solemn and jubilant -- even raucous at times. The president-elect and his family occasionally bobbed their heads and mouthed the words to songs, getting to their feet at one point to join the shaking crowd. In his own words, Mr. Obama addressed the myriad challenges confronting the country, but said he was "as hopeful as ever" that America can persevere.
Tomorrow's historic innaguration of America's first African American president offers a sense of hope and pride, but the honeymoon will be short as President Obama and his team and congress get down to the formidible tasks of putting the U.S.'s economic house in order.
Obama Stimulus Plan
Hitting the road to sell his economic-stimulus proposals to the public, President-elect Barack Obama cautioned Friday that the current downturn won't end soon if the government doesn't act. "With each passing day, families across America are watching their bills pile up and their savings disappear," Mr. Obama said. "If nothing is done, and we continue on our current path, this recession could linger for years -- and America could lose the competitive edge that has served as the foundation for our strength and standing in the world."
A package unveiled by House Democrats this week would create $825 billion in new government spending and tax cuts, plans Obama says would create or save 3 million to 4 million jobs.
More Bad News Ahead
Once the innaguration is over and the euphoria starts to wear off, there is a lot of work to be done by the new administration, congress, the Federal Reserve and Treasury. The major indexes are down for the year including a recent one-week slide. Indexes have rebounded a little in the last few trading days but there is a lot more bad news that is poised to come out in the coming weeks. Corporate earnings announcements will accelerate in the next few weeks and the results for Q4 for most corporations is expected to be bleak. Additionally new numbers have come out for unemployment numbers, and housing recently and the numbers are not good. Most economists and market analysts believe that weakness in these sectors and the financial sector will not likely turn around until after Q2, 2009.
So we are likely in for a somewhat long haul before a final bottom is found in the market and things turn around to a long term bullish trend. In the mean time investors can play the market swings. There is still a lot of volitility in the markets and the range of up and down trends will lend itself to playing the swings while all of us are waiting for the market fundamentals to solidify and things to turn around.
European Market Fall
Although U.S. markets are closed for the Martin Luther King holiday, foreign markets are open. And, unfortunately, most of them are dropping. That includes Brazil, Canada, and Europe. Stocks fell in all 18 western European markets. A catalyst for European weakness was a 67% plunge in the Royal Bank of Scotland. Britain took another shot at fixing its financial system by offering to buy toxic securities. British stocks fell nearly 1%. U.S. stock futures are down as well. Monday's weak foreign action appears to be continuing the trend seen over the last month. With the dollar rising, foreign shares are falling faster than those in the U.S. Commodity markets remain weak as money continues to flow into bonds.
