Low Result Indicators of Banks, Housing and Oil for Wall Street

The latest news in the world of economy is that stock portfolios are still down by a little over ten percent this year, according to the Wall Street. However, this week is turning out to be better than most because of the expectation of earning more, thus resulting in the Wall Street to have a better chance of getting out of the bear market territory. Then again, some quarterly results from the bigger banks mention gloomy forecasts that have pretty low expectations as well. In fact, crude oil prices also retreated from their former record highs despite being a little over seventy percent high ever since the summer.

Stock Portfolios are Down

In order to establish some semblance of ground, many investors are actually hoping that the developments made last week actually turn out to be the first signs which would indicate an improving economy at least for the first quarter of next year. After all, the leading indicator anyone would consider is the stock market. But thanks to the sinking housing market as well as some slow corporate earnings, it can be quite difficult for many investors to actually create justifications for any big bets that come into play.

In fact, Bob Andres, the chief investment strategies representing Envestnet, also states that he thinks the center of the entire dilemma actually is that of housing prices. There were many losses this week that one can expect from the Wachovia Corporation as well as Washington Mutual Incorporated. This is primarily due to the default in mortgages, as well as the market's newest data as indicators of home sales (both old and new). A report from the National Association of Realtors is expected to come out soon indicating the factors that caused the fall of housing sales in June and that the primary cause would be the traced back to the median estimate (as polled by the company Thomson Financial and IFR). Many economists also believe that the Department of Commerce will also say the same thing – that home sales are actually at a low since last month. Another problem would be that many investors also say that they think oil prices will keep on falling since they closed at a little below US $130 per barrel last Friday. A lot of major companies also released their own quarterly reports earlier this week. Some of these companies include the Bank of America Corp, Pfizer Inc, American Express Co, United parcel Service Inc, Yahoo Inc, Boeing co and McDonald's, to name a few.