A report showing low consumer confidence(the fifth lowest it has ever been) and a drop of more than 15% in home prices in the past year.  The markets did not like this news and within 30 minutes the Dow was down in triple digits and it looked like a long and red day for stocks.  After remaining low for about 45 minutes the Dow quickly rebounded into the positive and was up as much as 62 points as investors began to pick up shares of many stocks that seemed like steals at these low prices.  After peaking the Dow began a slow, steady decline and closed the day down 35 points.    A Fiscal Frenzy pick to watch out for right now is BTI.  We recommended this stock at 69 and it reached $78.6 before we pulled our buy recommendation and made it a sell.  The stock is back into the 60’s so we will keep you updated.  

Today the Dow Jones and Nasdaq were in the greens with the Nasdaq closing up 1.5 percent. The Dow was up over half a percent. These gains were partially driven by lower oil prices although they did remain above 130. The drop in prices sent the Energy sector tumbling nearly 1.5 percent. More importantly however was the long term impact of the poor economy. Although today was a solid day, last weeks pull back has diminished any claims that the market may be stabilizing. Today several reports came out on general consumer confidence. Firstly, today consumer confidence fell to near a 16 year low due to high gas prices, high consumer goods prices, lack of jobs and higher foreclosure rates. Today, a New York Conference board announced that the May consumer index had fallen to 57.2. Many economists expected readings of 60 so the tremendous low was a shocker. Director of the Conference board’s Consumer Research sector said today “Weakening business and job conditions coupled with growing pessimism about the short-term future have further depleted consumers’ confidence in the overall state of the economy.” The increasing inflation has also impacted the worries. Sadly, the current situation is not likely a bottom and these indexes will be critical to understanding how poor our economy will eventually become before turning around. Residential property values have also fallen significantly since the beginning of the year, falling over 14 percent in just the first quarter. Consumer goods such as bread have increased in price even up to 38 percent since last year. It is more and more evident that economic technicals do not bode well for the future of our receding economy and that the rapidly dropping consumer confidence indexes show the mood of the average American.