Earnings season officially kicked off last week with Alcoa's earnings. Companies in various sectors came out with guidance but the market declined for the third week in a row. For the week the Dow declined 1.5% de SP 0.75% and Nasdaq 2.6%. Since the beginning of the year the Nasdaq already lost 8% the same as the Russel 2000. So while losses were widespread, the biggest losers were tech stocks and small caps.

Bernanke said "the FED stand ready to take substantive additional action to support growth" and the result is gold at 900 usd and the euro near all time highs. Wall Street is now expecting a 50 bps rate cut on January 30. The pound continues falling since November is a dramatic 16 cents.

We enter now the last month of the WTI competition and HU Haochen is in the lead for the second week now with gains of 695% followed by Mr. Doleschall with 593%.