For the second time in three days the Dow Jones plummeted as financial woes plague investors.  Today the Dow dropped almost 450 points which is the second worst trading day of the year for the Dow.  The index closed at almost exactly 10,600 points, the lowest levels since October of 2005 and 20% below what the Dow started the year at.  Todays drop came as AIG was bailed out by the Fed with an 85 billion dollar loan.  AIG stock fell 45% today and is down 96% on the year.  Goldman Sachs (GS) released third quarter earnings today sending that stock down almost 14% by the close, well off the lows for the day.  Morgan Stanley (MS) shares closed down almost 25% as investors fear they may be the next major company to fall in this increasingly uncertain market.  Today oil jumped more than $6, or 6.6% but is still below $100 a barrel.  In more financial news Washington Mutual (WM) announced they are up for sale.  After hours the stock rose 10% but during day trade the stock closed down 13% to settle at $2.01 a share.  

Despite the news that home prices fell almost 16% year over year the markets rallied today after a sharp drop yesterday.  After dropping 240 points yesterday the Dow rallied more than 265 points today as oil dropped and investors found good buys in stocks that are continuing to hit lows almost daily.  Today oil dropped more than 2% to close at $122.19.  This is the lowest level oil prices have seen since early May, almost 3 months ago.  A crucial part to todays rally was a rebound in financial stocks, especially the bank sector.  Bank of America rallied more than 14% and Washington Mutual rallied more than 12%.  Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae also rallied today.  The Nasdaq finished up 55 points or 2.5% as technology rebounded from a tough day yesterday.  Fiscal Frenzy picks are now down 5.66% on the year, pretty good compared to the Dow’s drop of 14.08%.

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.

The Dow finished down more than 280 points, just 5 points above the day low set moments earlier.  The markets dropped on weak housing and lower earnings news which has been streaming in all week.  Earlier this morning Ford reported weaker earnings and the stock closed down more than 15% today.  Financials were also very weak today.  The banks were led lower by Washington Mutual (WM) which was down 13%.  Bank of America was down more than 8% and Citigroup was down almost 10%.  Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM) were each off more than 18% today.  Our pick Baidu (BIDU) finished the day strongly up 15% despite the market drop.  Our picks LVS and DIN were each down more than 12% today leading our declining stocks.