Yesterday, Ben Bernanke testified before Congress about economic stimulus and the possibility of more rate cuts. He did stop short of saying that the US would enter a recession. Instead, he pointed out that while economic growth will slow, negative growth was not a foregone conclusion.
The stock market wasn’t overly impressed by his testimony, and that means that it could be a good time to evaluate your investment portfolio for fundamentally strong stocks, buying those (while they are low) that are likely to recover.

Today’s breaking financial news is an emergency Fed rate cut of 75 basis points, bringing the overnight lending rate to 3.5 percent and the fed funds rate to 4.0 percent. This is the biggest cut since 1982. Apparently, while the Fed still won’t say “recession,” it is starting to take the economic situation seriously. MarketWatch reports on the emergency Fed rate cut:
With the move coming just eight days before the next scheduled meeting, “there can be no doubt that the timing of this morning’s move is aimed at supporting global financial markets after yesterday’s global equity meltdown,” wrote Joshua Shapiro, …read more