Wall Street suffers worst Inauguration day ever on banking woes

[Regis Philbin]

There's your vote of confidence, Mr. President.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2042740020090120

RPT-FACTBOX-Wall St suffers worst Inauguration Day ever

Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:56pm EST

NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street ushered in the
Barack Obama presidency with a record Inauguration Day drop on
Tuesday amid fresh signs the global bank crisis was far from
over.

Below are the percentage gains and losses for the Dow and
S&P 500 on Inauguration Day through 1897.

Year S&P Dow President (Party)
2009 -5.28 -4.01 Barack Obama (D)
2005 -0.79 -0.65 George W. Bush (R)
2001 CLOSED SAT. George W. Bush (R)
1997 +0.07 +0.16 William Clinton (D)
1993 -0.40 -0.43 William Clinton (D)
1989 -0.09 -0.17 George H. W. Bush (R)
1985 CLOSED SUN. Ronald Reagan (R)
1981 -2.02 -2.10 Ronald Reagan (R)
1977 -0.85 -0.99 James Carter (D)
1973 CLOSED SAT. Richard Nixon (R)
1969 -0.33 -0.46 Richard Nixon (R)
1965 -0.03 -0.11 Lyndon Johnson (D)
1961 +0.32 +0.31 John Kennedy (D)
1957 CLOSED SUN. Dwight Eisenhower (R)
1953 +0.50 +0.36 Dwight Eisenhower (R)
1949 +0.39 +0.17 Harry Truman (D)
1945 CLOSED SAT. Franklin Roosevelt (D)
1941 -0.29 -0.23 Franklin Roosevelt (D)
1937 +1.25 +1.05 Franklin Roosevelt (D)
1933* CLOSED SAT. Franklin Roosevelt (D)
1929 -2.28 Herbert Hoover (R)
1925 -1.59 Calvin Coolidge (R)
1921 -0.16 Warren Harding (R)
1917 CLOSED SUN. Woodrow Wilson (D)
1913 -0.76 Woodrow Wilson (D)
1909 -0.96 William Taft (R)
1905 CLOSED SAT. Theodore Roosevelt (R)
1901 -0.27 William McKinley (R)
1897 -1.88 William McKinley (R)
* - Last inauguration on March 4. From 1937 on, it has been
Jan 20.

[WannaBreatheYou]

You really don't have a clue about anything, do you? Good grief.

[Richard Tafoya]

Crains:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090120/FREE/901209964
Financial stocks led the market lower. Investors already nervous about the state of U.S. banking were rattled Tuesday by the Royal Bank of Scotland's forecast that its losses for 2008 could top $41.3 billion, the biggest ever for a British corporation. The British government injected more money into the struggling bank Monday. The government also announced another round of bailouts for the country's banks.

The moves in Britain are designed to insure banks against further losses and are similar to steps the U.S. government has made to protect Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. Both companies on Friday reported multibillion dollar fourth-quarter losses. Citigroup also said it planned to split its operations in two in an effort to return to profitability.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times is reporting that Bank of America will begin cutting as many as 4,000 jobs in its capital markets unit as it consolidates its operations in that division with those of recently acquired Merrill Lynch & Co.

Investors were uneasily awaiting the bulk of companies earnings reports to see how badly industries beyond banking are hurting.

"Today's market is under pressure with fourth-quarter earnings season (increasing this week) and it may not have been effectively priced into the market yet," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co.