The Weekly Report for September 22nd - September 26th, 2008

September 21, 2008- Market Summary
It was a hectic week on Wall Street to say the least as investors saw all major indexes nosedive early in the week thanks to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LEH). The news rocked investors around the world and sent the leaders of other major financial institutions to the bargaining table. This past week brought about news such as Banc of America's (NYSE:BAC) acquisition of Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER); other major investment banks such as Morgan Stanley were also considering deals of their own to fix some of their deepening problems. In case this wasn't enough for the market to digest, there was also the Federal Reserve coming to the aid of the sinking American International Group (NYSE:AIG). By Wednesday, it felt like nothing would be able to stop the selloff, but billions of dollars dedicated to various bailout plans combined with changes in the short-selling rules (when it comes to 799 financial's) finally was enough to put an end to the decline

The volatility in the market has truly been historic. The Dow Jones Industrial average notched triple-digit moves each day and for many, the question is becoming whether the bailout efforts, which caused an impressive rally on Thursday and Friday, will be enough to fight off a long-term move lower. The fact that the major indexes are trading below the long-term resistance of their respective 200-day moving averages suggests that there is a lot of work that needs to be done if we want to see the downtrend reverse any time soon.

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