Update #1/ Week of January 11, 2009

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Monday! Another Monday, another positive number on the Dow . . . it’s just the way things are. The other 2 major indices are struggling to stay above the unchanged mark, but I think it’s safe to say, equity markets are flat again today. Even so, for the first 6 trading days of the year, we have gained about 200 points on the Dow, after a 120 point drop on the last day of trading for 2009 (a net gain of about 100 points). Credit markets are equally as flat with rates for us improving slightly over Friday’s rate sheet last week (like within .125 in rebate).

There are no economic news releases this morning of note. China announced earlier today that their net exports has finally moved positive, the first time in a year . . . a report that provides some comfort for the global economy as a whole. The slow start for equity markets is a bit of a surprise in light of the fact that the US dollar is quite weak this morning . . . down .7% against a basket of foreign currencies -- this usually feeds a much stronger rise in stock prices.

Earnings season unofficially kicks off this afternoon with the earnings report from Dow component Alcoa due to be released after the closing bell. The rest of the week and the weeks to come should be a wild ride. Although, companies don’t want to be pessimistic at this point of the economic recession. We’re likely to hear a lot of talk about anticipated positive earnings going forward, push for growth instead of watching the bottom line, expansion of labor force and spending . . . and a coming out of the recession in 2010. We’ll see if bullish equity traders can ride that horse to higher stock prices. It will be interesting to watch. Gold prices are on the way back up, so some aren’t so sure we’re going to keep rising in equities.

I will be in the office all day today. Call me here or email me with your loan scenario or pricing questions. Have a terrific Monday and a very profitable week!