Thebullishtrends: US stocks closed in lower levels on Friday as slashed profit forecasts signaled slowing consumer spending and fueled talk of recession and after American Express's profit warning and Merrill Lynch's potential $15 billion writedown revived fears that the economy is heading into recession.The major indexes fell to new session lows after a top Federal Reserve official said investors have been too focused on individual interest-rate cuts rather than the overall direction of monetary policy.
In the end, the Dow dropped 246.8 points to end at 12,606.3, with 26 of its 30 components finishing lower as the blue-chip index tallied its worst percentage performance over the opening eight trading sessions of any year since 1991, when it fell 5%, yet finished the full year up 20%.
As CNN reports that Merryl Lynch may have to writedown $15 billion in bad mortgage bets when it posts results next Merrill week Next week brings earnings from Merrill and four other big banks, including Citigroup and results are expected to be pretty dismal amid the continued fallout from the credit and mortgage market crises
