Stocks fell sharply on Monday when Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings both stressed that last week’s Euro debt crisis summit did little to diminish the threat of future debt downgrades of several Euro countries. On Tuesday the Fed did not give any hint of upcoming quantitative easing, sending the markets down again moderately. A declining Euro put downward pressure on stocks again on Wednesday, as the Dow absorbed another 1% loss. On Thursday, stocks broke their losing streak on news that the US initial jobless claims is at its lowest since May 2008. While stocks started out high on Friday on a positive US inflation gauge report, these gains were wiped out by the end of the day on news that Fitch ratings put six European countries on debt downgrade alert.

[table id=41 /]