More bad news coming

The stock market this week is hoping for signs that the economy is surviving the problems in the financial sector -- and that the Federal Reserve will come to the rescue if it's not.

Investors are slowly getting a clearer picture of how much in risky and deteriorating debt securities the world's major financial institutions are holding, and they don't like what they see.

Wall Street already expects banks' portfolios to lose at least $20 billion in the fourth quarter, after announcements of anticipated writedowns of mortgage-backed securities and other debt instruments by such financial institutions as Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and Wachovia Corp.

Investors have been bracing for fourth-quarter writedowns for a while, but the amount was larger than many were prepared to hear. As a result, volatility has returned to virtually all corners of Wall Street.

After huge swings in either direction, the Dow Jones industrial average finished last week down 4.06 percent, and the Standard & Poor's ended down 3.71 percent.

The Nasdaq composite index was hit the hardest last week, as investors' optimism vanished about the technology sector being isolated from the slowing economy and problems in the financial markets. The Nasdaq ended the week down 6.49 percent.

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