Update #1, Week of March 22, 2010

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Monday! We ended last week on a down note for equity markets after 8 straight days of positive closes. The Dow closed Friday down 37 points . . . and what do you know . . . we’re up 38 points right at this very minute. A negative tone seemed to be prevalent before the opening bell maybe from steep losses in Asian stock markets overnight. However, the markets have stayed steadily positive, and as I mentioned before, we are exactly where we started on Friday morning.

Health Care reform obviously dominates the economic news page this morning. Last night’s passage of the Health Care Reform bill has traders scrambling to try to assess the impact on the economy and health care related stocks. There are no economic news reports of note today, so the markets will likely revolve around this big health care issue throughout the day.

Gold prices have dropped below $1100 an ounce for the first time in several weeks, as a strong dollar puts pressure on stocks and commodities. Oil prices were about $1 below the $80 benchmark early this morning that has been it’s roost for most of the year, but has since made up those losses and trades only modestly negative. Credit markets are improving today and thus, our pricing is about (.125) better than Friday’s rate sheet -- still in this very tight trough.

I will be in the office all day today, however, I will be out and about tomorrow visiting broker shops. Call me here or email me if I can help you with a loan scenario or pricing question. Have a terrific Monday and a very profitable week!