Tough economic pressures around the world have put a strain on the American economy. After going up for several days last week, the indexes fell and the rise of oil prices was pushed down a bit. Is this a sign of troubles to come around the world that will hurt the American economy? Once AGAIN?

World Economy Seems to be Slipping Down

After a downgrade in the debt pressure of Portugal on the Euro, which pushed the U.S. dollar higher, and then caused oil to go down, it may be no surprise that major stock indexes were down as a result. The S&P 500 index fell by 71.4 points earlier this week due to the lowering of Portugal’s debt by one point to Double-A-Minus. Confidence in the Euro has fell as a result, which helped the dollar. The Euro fell to a 10-month low against the U.S. dollar. The strong U.S. dollar at this moment pushed the Canadian Dollar, which was close to par, down almost one cent to 97.64 cents US.

For crude oil, the May crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell by $1.16 to $80.75, which hurt the energy sector by pushing it down by .57 percent. Mining companies also suffered, with the gold sector falling by 2.42 percent total.

In terms of the Dow Jones, it lost 50 points and fell to 10,838, with the NASDAQ falling by 14.04 points as well. Durable goods orders in the United States grew by .5 percent, which is below the .7 percent growth that was expected. One good point about this rise in goods orders is that there have been three straight months with rises in orders.

Home Sales Went down in February 2010

Additionally, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that home sales fell by over two percent last month. This is not good considering many economists were forecasting a rise of 1.9 percent.

The world is still battling through The Great Recession, and with Portugal having problems with its credit rating, there seems to be no real end in sight yet. The United States economy appeared to be growing earlier this month, but once again things have fallen as a result of the troubles around the world. With the Euro struggling, the dollar is doing better but that does not mean that the American economy is going to be improving any time soon.

What Makes a Stagnant Economy

Rise & Fall of American Dream

Zecco Reviews: Free Online Stock Trading

First of all anyone who is looking to invest in C anytime soon, needs to put all their emotion aside. I usually find people having a real love-hate relationship with stocks. If you are a day trader and love the stock when it moves 2% up and get sad when it moves 2% down, small changes like that should not really bother you.

That is exactly what is happening with C right now. People who have lost bunch of money (who got in early last year at rates much higher than current rates are crying wolf right now. Honestly speaking I like to take some risks so I personally let the stocks fall to the rock bottom and start rising again, thats where I like to get in. So guess what I did, I purchased around 3000 shares when C was trading in the vicinity of 3.28$ and I was not sure how high it will go. So when it breached 3.5$ mark, I set a limit order to sell at 3.6$. To my surprise my order went through the same day. All this happened last week. March 2010 so far has been my lucky month.

The trick to the game with C right now is that you either play it as a day trader, with all that short term volatility, or you buy it and hold it as an investment, i.e. for over a 12 month time horizon.

Obviously today, March 16th is critical as it is the end of the lock-up period for the US government’s holding of preferred shares. One thing that comes out of this is that a lot more clarity should be forthcoming once the government’s intentions become visible to the market.

So, it’s play with the short term-ers, or take the longer view as a portfolio investor. You are the only one who can make that call. But the bottom line is that if you are able to get in with a price in the vicinity of 4$, you are almost guaranteed to make decent return in next few months.

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There is a great deal of speculation on how the markets are doing based on the very slow recovery that seems to be occurring. In the past few weeks alone the Dow Jones has grown by only a few points, often getting single-digit increases at the end of the trading day. While consumer confidence may be bringing the market down, and jobless data only giving it minor increases, financial stocks are helping the market gain new ground.

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 have been growing in value. In fact, recently the S&P 500 reached a 17-month high. However, the market continues to grow slowly because of a lack of investor confidence in the market, which itself is based on the lack of consumer confidence in the economy. One sector that is helping the market recover is ironically the sector that helped to bring it down in the first place; financials.

Financial Stocks are the driving factors

Financial stocks this past week helped the market increase in value for the third straight day. The S&P 500 rose past its January peak during the second week of March, and many investors are hoping that these gains will get more investors confident in the market. The largest gain came from Citigroup, which saw its stock go up 5.6 percent over the last three days of the week. Citibank (c) crossed the 4$ mark for the first time in 2010.

All sectors seem to be dependent upon finance

If not for the rise in financial stocks this past week, things could have been a bit worse for the stock market as a spike in inflation in China has made many investors wary. In China, the inflation rate jumped from 1.5 percent in January to 2.7 percent in February, which signals to many investors that China’s economy may be in trouble.

This past week, the Dow Jones was able to rise by a total of 44.51 points to 10,611.84, but that is still down from its January high by just over one percent. The S&P 500 increased by 4.63 points to 1,150.24, giving the index its highest value since October 1, 2008. The NASDAQ also enjoyed an increase of 9.51 to 2,368.46, giving the index its sixth straight increase.

Market is recovering but at a slow rate

As can be seen by these increases, the market is recovering but it is doing so very slowly. As time goes on, and the market shows marked increases over several weeks, more and more investors will enter the market and that will help it increase in value. How long this will take is something that no one really has any way of knowing.

The stock market is recovering but it is doing so slowly. It has taken some time for the markets to reach their previous highs but as investor confidence grows, so too does the decision by investors to put money into the market. As time goes on, the market will continue to recover as long as sectors like the financial sector continues to grow.

Further Readings

Which companies will come out strong from Recession

What makes a stagnant Economy

Since the stock market suffered a big collapse a year ago, it has come a long way to improve and a big reason for that are the stocks that are doing well and helping to bring up the rest of the market. The stocks listed here are the top performers of the past year, and the ones that have helped give hope to investors who worry about the strength of the American economy.

The stocks that have done the best in the last few months are the companies who have been able to recover and survive the economic collapse that hit in 2008-09. These are the stocks of companies that are doing things right in the new economic reality.

• Office Depot Inc. has seen its stock go up almost 900% percent from when they hit bottom on March 9, 2009. In October 2007, the stocks of the company were sitting at $20, but by March 2009 the stocks had fallen to as low as 18$. These days, the stock is back up at $7.41, which shows that the company has begun to recover and move its way back up.
• Fifth Third Bancorp is a regional bank that once traded at $40 before the market collapse but at the beginning of March the stock fell to a horrible $1.39. Since then, the stock has improved by 829.2 percent, rising up to $12.73. A long way from its $40 height, but at least it is moving in the right direction.
• Genworth Financial Inc. was trading at $30 in the spring of 2004 and it kept trading at that height for quite some time before it fell to 91 cents by the beginning of March. The company took $2 billion in losses and it looked like the end. However, the company has worked hard to improve and the stock of the company has risen by 1,701 percent to $16.39, making it the biggest performer of the last 12 months.
• When the economic crisis hit, people stopped traveling and when they did that, companies like Wyndham Worldwide suffered. While the company once traded much higher, the stock hit a low point of $3.10 in March of 2009. However, thanks to an improving economy and more travelling, the stock has improved by 695 percent to $24.01.

Throughout the past few months, all we have heard is the companies that are failing and the trouble at the stock market. However, there are some bright spots that many should remember and the companies listed here are the companies that have made the right choices to improve their stocks. Through cutting costs and changing business practices, these companies have seen their stocks go up by immense amounts and the investors who jumped on board the stocks when they were low, are now smiling because of the huge gains. Buying low and selling high has paid off with these stocks.

Further Reading:

Worst Performing Stocks in past 12 months

Companies That will Rise After Recession in 2010

Reality of New Economy

The past 12 months have been tough on a lot of companies, and a lot of investors have lost a great deal of money due to the fall of so many stocks. On the top of the list of bad stocks are the ones mentioned here. These are the stocks that have fallen the most since March of 2009, and the ones that show companies not weathering the economic storm well.

Over the past 12 months, these are the stocks that have fallen the most and cost their investors the most.

• GameStop Corporation was doing quite well in March of 2009, but disappointing game sales and the loss of the chief financial officer of the company have hurt the company. Since last year, the stock of GameStop has fallen 22.9 percent, down to $18.08. A big drop came in February, when on one day the stock of the company fell 7.2 percent alone.

• MetroPCS Communications was another stock doing well in 2008, but by 2009 the company was beginning to suffer trouble, including losing half their profits in the second quarter. The announcement of that loss caused the stock to fall 29 percent in one day. Currently, the stock has fallen by 54.9 percent from last year, down to only $6.38 currently.
• Apollo Group Inc. has not fallen as far as other stocks, and it still trades high, but the company has had some difficult financial reports issued, showing that the company is in trouble. The company’s stock currently trades at $62.39, which is 6.6 percent below what it was trading at one year ago.
• MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. was doing well when the stimulus package was announced, but with the decline in silicon prices, the company has taken a big hit going down 8.9 percent to $12.90. In one day in February, the stock took a big 15 percent hit alone due to poor earnings and losses for the fourth quarter of 2009.
• Dean Food Corporation has fallen 16.4 percent to $16, which does not bode well for the largest dairy company in the United States. The company fell 14 percent in February alone due to the company not reaching its profit expectations forecast by the company for the month.

There are several stocks that are doing well and have improved greatly in the past 12 months. However, not all stocks are doing well and the companies mentioned here are companies that may continue to see economical trouble. When the lists of the worst performing stocks of 2010 are announced, you may see these companies listed again. That is unless the companies begin to rebound and find ways to increase profits and therefore, increase their stock price. Only time will tell to see if these companies see improvements on their stock prices. For those who invest in these companies, they can only hope the stock starts going up, after going down for a year.

Further Reading:

After Effects of Recession on US Economy

Is the second dip coming?