Update #2/ Week of January 11, 2009

Good Afternoon Everyone and Happy Tuesday! As we discussed yesterday, earnings season kicked off (unofficially) last night with Alcoa reporting earnings which missed expectations. Analysts were looking for a profit of $.06 a share and the actual number came in at $.01 a share. Good news is, they only lost about $275 Million this past quarter compared to 1.2 Billion in Q4 of 2008. Great news, eh? Well, traders in equity markets don’t see it is such a positive thing. The Dow is down as of this moment by 70 points, matching it’s earlier low of the session. Chevron also came out with a statement saying that it’s 4th quarter profits were going to be down.

Traders also had to deal with the report released this morning on the November trade balance deficit. In November the actual deficit for our country was $36.4 Billion, quite a bit worse than the $34.6B anticipated and worse from the October number of $33.2 Billion. Oil prices are down slightly for the morning so far, and the dollar is flat.

Credit markets are better in the face of equity markets declining. Our rebates on our 30 year fixed products are anywhere from (.25) to (.375) better than yesterday’s rebates. We look for this trend to continue.

I will be in a monthly sales meeting at 10:00 this morning for about an hour, then I will be available the rest of the day. I hope you have a terrific Tuesday!