U.S. stocks posted their highest weekly gain since 1974. The move led by banks, comes after the U.S. government agreed to protect Citigroup from more losses while at the same time the government is expected to aid automakers. The S&P 500 closed up over 12 percent for the week.

Stocks soared Monday, after the news over the government's rescue plan for Citigroup. The plan involves a $20 billion direct investment in the company, and a guarantee towards $306 billion of its troubled assets. Under the agreement, Citigroup must get executive compensation plans approved by the government and must not pay shareholders dividends larger than $0.01 without government approval.

The S&P 500 posted its biggest weekly gain since 1974. The financial sector saw large gains after JPMorgan expanded its housing rescue plan. While it places its new plans into action, the company announced that it was not going to place any new delinquent loans into the foreclosure process during the 90 days it takes to implement its new plan.

Wall Street soared Monday after the Federal Reserve began making unprecedented levels of dollars available to aide the government's push to support the global banking system. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up a massive 936 and the S&P 500 posted its largest one-day gain in history. Overall all three major indexes in U.S. rose by over 11 percent.

The International Monetary Fund rose its growth forecasts on the U.S. stating that it expects the U.S. economy to grow just slightly above 1 percent, up from its April forecast of 0.5 percent. Lipsky reported that growth will be "stagnet" for the rest of the year and warned that global markets are expected to produce a "below trend" growth this year for the first time in decades.

The S&P 500 ended just slightly down for the week as the Federal Reserve stated that they are more concerned with inflation than the current credit crisis. Investors are now concerned that the Federal Reserve may actually raise interest rates in order to curve ramped consumer price increases.

The dollar is currently trading near its all-time low against the euro as speculation builds that housing reports to be released tomorrow will show another month of falling prices in the housing market. Also investors are speculating that consumers spending will be at the lowest level in nearly 15 years.

President Bush stated that American are in a "tough economic period" after several reports were released on Friday that indicated weakness in the economy. The economy lost more American jobs for the fourth straight month in a row, and total economic growth is near zero here in America.

This week starts the first wave of Q3 earnings reports. Investors are already prepared for some dim results for the quarter; however, investors are eagrely awaiting outlooks towards future growth. Although, Standard & Poor's anticipates a small decline for Q3 revenues, they are forecasting fourth-quarter growth of more then 10%.

Stocks rallied as the Fed lowered interest rates by .5 points to 4.75% hoping to minimize potential fall outs from the housing sector. The interest rate cut was the first rate cut in 4 years. The rate was more then most investors were expecting, and led the S&P 500 to its biggest one day gain since March 2003.

The S&P 500 index dropped sharply on Thursday as shares of Akamai Technology fell over 22%.