Wall Street

Wall Street knows it shouldn't get ahead of itself. So traders and investors are likely to go into the new week cautiously as they wait to see whether last week's rally was a sign of a turnaround or just a blip. The market has become used to false starts since stocks began their collapse last September. And as Wall Street ran up its biggest weekly gain since November, many analysts warned that this rally would soon fizzle, with stocks pulling back again rather than staging a lasting recovery.

Coming off its worst week since November, Wall Street is now wondering whether its late-2008 optimism about the economy was misguided -- or at least premature. The beginning of companies' fourth-quarter earnings reports this week will be more anxiety-provoking than usual for investors after Alcoa Inc. and Intel Corp. warned last week that they were being hit hard by the recession.

U.S. stocks slid in early trading Monday following French and Greek elections that may shift the direction of the Eurozone's fiscal policy. The Dow Jones industrial average was down about 50 points, or 0.38%, shortly after the opening bell on Wall Street. The Standard & Poor's 500 index bounced in and out of positive territory in early trading. The S&P 500 was down about 2 points, or 0.15%, about 45 minutes after trading opened. Wall Street's mixed opening comes as the elections in France and Greece appeared to challenge austerity measures the European countries have put in place to reassure bond markets as an intractable debt crisis continues to imperil the continent's common monetary system.

NEW YORK - U.S. stocks ended mostly higher in a volatile session Thursday as better-than-expected economic data and German approval of a stronger euro-zone crisis fund soothed two of the worst fears hanging over the market. Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 143.08 points, or 1.30%, to end unofficially at 11,153.98. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 9.34 points, or 0.81%, at 1,160.40. But the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 10.82 points, or 0.43%, to close unofficially at 2,480.76.

Re "Gaming of energy market jolts consumers," Column, July 18 Michael Hiltzik again throws light on the dark side of American enterprise. JPMorgan Chase & Co. should be forced to repay California for revenue it gained by manipulating regulations on energy markets. If the "smart people" in that organization have nothing better to do than cheat, maybe they should be sitting in a federal prison and not in some Wall Street office. If corporations possess the right of free speech, then on the flip side, they should not be allowed to shield individuals within their ranks who game the system.

As hundreds of fourth-quarter earnings reports stream in this week, Wall Street's reaction will turn on companies' answers to one question: When will the recession end? "Not soon" is what the market heard last week. Big banks posted ugly numbers and told investors they were still struggling with rickety balance sheets. That revived fears that the economic recovery that some analysts have forecast for the second half of the year won't materialize.

2008 marked the end of Wall Street's "Masters of the Universe" phase -- roughly three decades of head-spinning financial engineering, astronomic compensation and an intricate global web of deal-making. By year's end, New York's five largest investment banks had collapsed, been acquired or been transformed into more tightly regulated entities. A liquidity crisis caused Bear Stearns Cos.

One very scary year ago this week, we were tipping headfirst into an economic black hole that threatened to suck down the global economy. How did it happen? Congress has created a 10-member citizens commission to find out. At its head is Phil Angelides, Democrat and millionaire businessman who served as California's state treasurer for eight years and then lost his bid for governor in 2006. Lately he's been working with Magic Johnson to create a fund to fix up and "green up" affordable rental housing for working families.

The president on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping reform of financial rules since the Great Depression, saying, the "American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes." The signing ended the arduous, yearlong effort to push the lengthy bill through Congress in the face of heavy lobbying by the financial industry and nearly unanimous opposition by Republicans. And it sets the stage for midterm elections this fall, when Republicans hope to make significant inroads into the Democratic majority.

Re "Home seekers edged out in Inland market," Feb. 17 On the one hand, it is truly heartbreaking to read that the efforts of qualified young professionals to buy homes are being thwarted by investors offering all cash, "some backed by Wall Street war chests. " On the other, it is absolutely revolting that greedy investors are so anxious to flip properties and make even more money that they are cheating the next generation of what they themselves are so lucky to enjoy: homeownership.