The Dow finished the week down just over one percent after yesterdays drop of over 2 percent.  Oil finished the week down five dollars a barrel to close at $123.26.  The drop in the Dow was due to financial stocks after bad bank earnings and more housing problems triggered a major sell off yesterday.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each finished the week down 10% or more.  After bad earnings after hours Wednesday Washington Mutual stock dropped big, finishing down 35% on the week.  Despite this the financial sector was still up .74% this week after better than expected earnings from other financial stocks.  Oil finished down about $5 this week to close at $123.26.  Oil was down after Hurrican Dolly missed the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.  Also, record gas prices brought fears that demand for gas would be lower than expected.  Fiscal Frenzy will be starting new Saturday articles on different market sectors beginning tomorrow.

After being down almost 170 points the Dow rallied to close the day up 32 points.  The markets turned around despite record oil and gas prices.  These energy prices also affected the latest auto sales numbers.  General Motors (GM) reported car sales were down 18% in June compared the June of 2007.  And the lack of sales was seen not only in trucks and SUV’s, but also in small, fuel efficient cars.  In other news today shares of Yahoo! (YHOO) traded lower than 20 dollars a share for the first time since January and rumors of a Microsoft (MSFT) came about.  The tech slump today was not all bad as Fiscal Frenzy pick Apple (AAPL) was up more than 4.3% after AT&T announced a plan to sell a contract free iPhone for an extra $400.  This news put pressure on competitor Sprint Nextel (S) which fell more than 7%.  After a huge 200 point swing the markets might be ready to make a long term come back making July a possibly promising month for investors.  So far this year the Dow has lost more than 14% while Fiscal Frenzy picks post a loss of less than 2%.  Be sure to vote in our poll to give us your opinion on what articles you prefer.  

Today was the perfect storm for stocks and this storm contains several components that all contributed to the Dow falling more than 3% to it’s lowest level since 2006.   The first thing in the storm was some negative earnings news out of Research in Motion(RIMM) which came up short of expectations.  This news sent the stock tumbling more than 12% and dragged the Nasdaq down more than 3.3%.  The other economic data that came out was the Fed keeping rates steady at 2%.  As investors fearing a recession and investors fearing inflation saw this move as negative they began to sell their stocks and secure gains.  The dollar also dropped after this move by the fed and that sent oil up more than $5 and it crossed more than $140 a barrel for the first time in history.  These key components sent our Fiscal Frenzy picks down 2.75%.  The Dow is now down almost 14% this year and is currently at it’s low for the year.  The market is now faced with the problems of a recession and inflation, both of which can be triggered by the Fed trying to fix one or the other.  Who knows what is in store for the markets now as tough economic times continue.