Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke talks about the overall state of the economy. He also talks about housing prices and an overall outlook.

I made this video cartoon with Xtranormal's site. I made this other one on the stock market too.

Showing how even when markets are mostly in 1 direction they remain difficult to make money in, Friday's dead cat bounce in retrospect did little other than scald bears who were pressing.  As I review the news flow and time stamps Friday, it seemed very strange to see such a strong rally based on (a) a negative reaction to Ben Bernanke's comments initially [the market sold off post 10 AM] and (b) Intel's pre-announcement on earnings.

Fed Chairman Bernanke did not put forth a very convincing argument

First let’s look at the trend.
After an unusual four straight quarters of negative growth in the severe 2008-2009 recession, the recession ended in the September quarter of last year when GDP managed fragile growth of 1.6% for the quarter, and then improved to 5.0% growth in the December quarter.
It was understood that much of that growth was temporary, fueled by government spending, and spending by consumers provided with government bonuses and rebates, as well as temporary rebuilding of inventories by businesses.

Oil Market Summary for 08/23/2010 to 08/27/2010
Oil prices recovered some lost ground Friday after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed stands ready to do whatever it takes to support economic recovery.
The benchmark West Texas Intermediate October futures contract gained 2.5% on Friday, settling at $75.17 a barrel and wiping out losses from the beginning of the week.

Currency trading with the U.S. dollar

The U.S. dollar is mixed in forex trading on the currency market today. The U.K. pound is moving higher against the U.S. dollar right now, as is the Japanese yen. The yen's strength comes in spite of the latest move by the Bank of Japan to expand its quantitative easing program in an attempt to slow yen appreciation.