Great time to invest in stocks

[Hortical]

We may have seen the real bottom of the market. Stock prices are still very low, and historians say the market tends to recover before the economy.


By Donna Kardos
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of bank stocks rallied in premarket trading Thursday after Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) projected its first-quarter results well above analysts' expectations, boosting sentiment for a sector that has been plagued by worries.
"The banking stocks are likely to stay front-runners of the momentum today due to WFC," BWS Financial analyst Hamed Khorsand told clients in a Thursday note.
Shares of Wells Fargo - which said it expects to report a $3 billion profit on $20 billion in revenue - soared 33% premarket to $19.80.
Among the other big banks, U.S. Bancorp (USB) rallied 21% to $5.29, while Bank of America Corp. (BAC) climbed 18% to $8.31, Citigroup Inc. (C) rose 12% to $3.03 and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (KPM) rose 12% to $39.85.
Regional banks also rallied strongly. United Community Banks Inc. (UCBI) gained 21% to $5.29, while Huntington Bancshares Inc. (HBAN) climbed 16% to $1.99. Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), Regions Financial Corp. (RF) and SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI) all rose 15%.
BWS's Khorsand noted with the markets closed Friday, trading volume could decrease toward the end of the day, "as investors try to take an early three-day weekend. As long as the banks show leadership, then the market averages are likely to post gains for the day."

[Islandman]

I believe we still have a way to go before things stabilize. A lot of the banks still have not showed thier full hand. Might be a rocky ride up and down for stocks until the full story is told.

Nonetheless I am fairly positive long term about the world economy as I believe we have only just started to really utilize the technology that is available today to so many people. When you consider just Google and the other search engines, I think they have made me 2-3 times more productive (at least).

Nuff nuff innovation still going on out there in the world, and at a faster and cheaper rate than before because so many more of us are participating in the global economy.

We have to get over this big, big hump first though, and there is always the threat of war and major terrorist incidents to deal with.