For the past five weeks U.S. stocks have lost more than 30% of its value. After last week sell-off, the Dow lost 473 points or 5.3% to 8378, the lowest close since April, 2003. The S&P 500 tumbled 6.78% to 876, while the Nasdaq shed 9.3% to 1552, both at the lowest closing levels since spring, 2003.

As approaching the final week of the scary “Black October”, traders can expect the markets to be as volatile and maybe even scarier hoping that October will be the month where stocks will finally hit bottom, even if it means bleeding more blood before it’s over.

The health of credit markets and the global economy will influence stocks this week. There will be a heavy week of economic news. The focus is on the Fed’s two day meeting ending on Wednesday expected with a half point rate cut to 1% is what many assume will be the end of its aggressive easing campaign.

New home sales are reporting today. Consumer confidence and the S&P Case Shiller Home Price Index for August is on Tuesday. Durable goods data is scheduled to release on Wednesday. Watch out for the GDP on Thursday and weekly jobless claims are also reported. On Friday, personal income and spending, and the employment cost index are released, as is the Chicago PMI and consumer sentiment.

A more accommodating second stimulus package has been discussed in Washington and on the campaign trail as a necessary measure to preserve jobs and prevent the consumer from being completely derailed.

On earnings, about a quarter of the S&P 500 companies reporting this week with major oil companies on the list including British Petroleum, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Hess, Marathon Oil, Murphy Oil, Occidental, Royal Dutch Shell, Tesoro, and Valero.

Other companies reporting include Aetna, Arch Coal, Clorox, Colgate-Palmolive, Corning, Estee Lauder, Kraft, Kellogg, Motorola, NYSE Euronext, Procter and Gamble, U.S. Steel, Verizon and Whirlpool.

“Listen, there is no courage or any extra courage that I know of to find out the right thing to do. Now, it is not only necessary to do the right thing, but to do it in the right way and the only problem you have is what is the right thing to do and what is the right way to do it. That is the problem. But this economy of ours is not so simple that it obeys to the opinion of bias or the pronouncements of any particular individual, even to the President. This is an economy that is made up of 173 million people and it reflects their desires, they’re ready to buy, they’re to spend, it is a thing that is too complex and too big to be affected adversely or advantageously just by a few words or any particular - say a little this and that, or even a panacea so alleged” - Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (1953 to 1961)

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