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Shares of Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) fell to set another fresh 52-week low today, as oil continues to fall.

Shares of Exxon have traded down as low as $58.30 earlier in the session, and headed into the afternoon session, the stock has rebounded a bit, but is still trading down 8.7% to $62.20, down $5.80 on the day.

It's been a tough week for the stock, which is now down around 21% from its close last Friday.

As recession fears continue to spread, oil has been moving steadily lower, and once again today the precious crude is down, falling another $5.82 a barrel to $80.77, and was under the psychological $80 earlier in the day, trading all the way to $78.61 earlier in the session.

U.S. stock futures were significantly lower Friday morning, a day after the Dow industrials had already plunged 678 points. The Dow dropped 21% in the past 10 days. U.S. stock markets are looking to join the plunge in global markets as Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 9.6%, Hong Kong Hang Seng dropped 7%, London's FTSE 100 declined 5.5% and the German DAX 30 was down 8% to name but a few that have managed to remain open. Some global markets actually had to close today, prompting the name "Black Friday."

Wednesday's coordinated rate cut didn't seem to loosen frozen credit markets as investors seem to completely lose confidence in the world's financial system. Finance officials from the G7 are meeting in Washington Friday to address the financial meltdown. On the economic front, August trade data and September import prices will be released. Oil prices plummeted to a one-year low of $82 a barrel.

General Electric (NYSE: GE) -- meanwhile this morning, GE reported results that met the lowered expectations. GE's profit fell 22% to $4.3 billion, or 43 cents per share, compared with $5.56 billion, or 54 cents, a year earlier. GE's revenue climbed 11% to $47.23 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of 45 cents a share on revenue of $47.34 billion. GE recently got a $3 billion infusion from Buffett's Berkshire and raised $12.2 billion through a stock offering. Shares of GE are down about 1% in pre-market trading.

The federal government is considering backing all bank deposits and guaranteeing huge amount of bank dept. Depositors are withdrawing money from financial companies at an alarming rate.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "If the two moves come to fruition they would mark the government's most extensive intervention yet in the financial system."

"If" is a big problem. Many banks and brokerage stocks are selling off at the rate of 10% to 20% a day. Barclays (NYSE: BCS) opened down over 20% in London trading.

Governments are allowing the collapse of financial markets to get well out ahead of solutions. If that continues, confidence in the banking system could falter further and lending could be shut down completely.

If the Treasury and Fed do not act over the weekend, next week could be unspeakably tough.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

One of the few things that Barack Obama and John McCain agreed on during last night's televised debate was that billionaire Warren Buffett would make a good Secretary of the Treasury.

Odds are that the universally respected Buffett won't take the job. Why does he need the headache at this point in his life? Besides, he may not be the type of government official investors would like. Much to the horror of political conservatives, the Oracle of Omaha is backing Obama. He has come out against such bedrock Republican principles as abolishing the so-called death tax on inherited wealth. The financial disclosure requirements alone probably are enough to scare Buffett away from government service.

To counter Obama's Buffett card, McCain said that former eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman might be the right person for the job. I guess no one mentioned to the Arizona senator the massive layoffs planned by the online auctioneer. Interesting how another McCain supporter, ex-Hewlett Packard Co. (NASDAQ: HPQ) Chief Executive Carly Fiorina, did not merit consideration. Given her disastrous tenure, it's no wonder.

Another good potential Treasury Secretary neither brought up is Michael Bloomberg. The founder of Bloomberg LP (where I worked for seven years) clearly knows the markets. He's rich and has shown savvy in navigating New York City's political landmines that Washington should be a walk in the park. Too bad he's got his heart set on a third time as mayor.

U.S. stock futures turned higher Wednesday after the Federal Reserve, in a coordinated move with other central banks, cut rates by half a point to 1.5%, in an effort to help credit markets and boost financial markets. Before the rate cut, futures were lower as Wall Street was about to join global markets in a world-wide plunge that saw the Nikkei down 9.4% and European main markets down 5-6%. On the economic front, August pending home sales released later today might crimp the mood somewhat.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) kicked off earnings season after the close Tuesday. The world's third-largest aluminum producer reported a 52% drop in third quarter profit as sharply lower aluminum prices and lower demand hurt results. AA shares are down 4% in pre-market trading.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) -- in what could only be described as unbelievable nerve, days after the $85 billion federal bailout loan, AIG spent $440,000 on a posh California retreat for its executives that included spa treatments and much more. Lawmakers were enraged over the thousands of dollars AIG spent on executives even as the company was staving off bankruptcy. It seems it is morally bankrupt. AIG stock is recovering 5.4% this morning after the rate cut.

Republican John McCain has failed to convince the majority of Americans that Barack Obama is a tax-and-spend liberal who lacks the intestinal fortitude to face our country's enemies. In a show of desperation, the Arizona Republican and his running-mate Sarah Palin are now trying to link Obama with former Weathermen leader William Ayers, even though the New York Times and other news organizations have pointed out that the two men knew each other casually. That's why tonight's debate in Nashville is critical.

McCain, who is favored by many investors, is facing some pretty daunting odds. According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 49 percent of voters said they would vote for Obama compared with 43 percent for the Arizona senator. That's up from a two-point advantage two weeks ago and mirrors other polls, according to the Journal. To be fair, the survey does have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. Obama has wiped away McCain's lead with independent voters.

Investors should not underestimate the anger in the hearts of voters. The credit crisis has wiped out tens of billions of dollars in value to the retirement nest eggs of the American people. Most people don't understand why the government needed to extend a $700 billion lifeline to the financial services industry. They become even angrier when three former chief executives of American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) blame one another like a bunch of two-year-olds for the firm's collapse. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping below 9,500 scares them even further.

It is against this backdrop we are holding this election. Obama has been able to convince voters, including this one, that he can deliver tax relief for the middle class. But Democrats should not rejoice quite yet. McCain excels at these town hall meetings. Moreover, some of Obama's support in polls comes from people who are too embarrassed to admit that they don't want to vote for an African-American candidate.

Americans crave leadership during these times of economic crisis. Since Wall Street has failed to provide, it's unfortunately up to our elected officials.

It seems like there is always something to worry about these days. Over the summer, the economy was showing signs of what was to come, but the main concern on most of our minds was not the overall economy. Instead, we were worried about the $4 gasoline that we were pumping into our cars.

Now, the tables have turned, and all we are thinking about is the crashing economy. But at least we can take a little pleasure out of the fact that gas is falling, and should continue to drop.

It wasn't that long ago that we were feeling the full brunt of record high gasoline prices. It was July 17, in fact, when the national average hit its peak of $4.114 a gallon. While prices are still running at historically high levels, they have come well off their summer highs, and are currently sitting at an average of $3.48 a gallon nationwide for regular unleaded. A pretty nice pullback, to say the least.

Almost everyone expected that September was a rough month, but a survey from Mastercard (NYSE:MA) shows that it was much worse than expected.

According to Reuters, "Not one spending category posted positive gains over last year, according to the report by SpendingPulse, the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors." The poll looks at everything from clothing to furniture sales.

The hardest hit sector may have been electronics and appliance sales, which were off almost 14% for the month.

While the news is likely to put further pressure on retail stocks and may lead to layoffs in that industry, it also shows how slow the federal government was to get into the act of helping the economy. But refusing to cut interest rates or increase the amount of money being pushed out to banks through its emergency funding window, the Fed made it almost certain that consumer credit would be undermined. The Fed's new program to expand the aid it give to banks comes too late.

The holidays will be hard for retailers, perhaps the worst they have been in decades. The Fed may not have saved Christmas but it could have gone a long way to soften the blow.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

With talk this morning of a plan for the Fed to set up Special Purpose Vehicles -- remember Enron? -- to buy up Commercial Paper (CP), a shrinking $1.6 trillion market of month long loans used to pay employees and buy inventory, we are now getting to the point where the Fed and the Treasury are the only bank that's still making loans. And with the new SPVs it looks like the Fed is running out of money to sop up all the financial toxic waste. The other banks seem to be frozen by fear. They borrow money from the Fed and clutch it to their breast, unable to trust that it they lend it to others that it will get paid back with interest.

But the good news for the time being is that the world still thinks of U.S. treasury bills as the safest place to park money. As a result, the Treasury can sell an apparently unlimited quantity of them to investors around the world and pay virtually no interest in the bargain. As long as this continues, it creates an opportunity to put that money to some positive use -- instead of throwing it at the world markets and watching value evaporate -- e.g., $2 trillion has disappeared since the $810 billion bailout bill to save us from heaven's wrath was about to pass.

The Fed could charter, say, 100 new banks around the country. These banks would be capitalized by a combination of money from the Treasury and private investors. Their deposits would be insured up to $250,000 and they would be required to lend out no more than $10 for every dollar of capital. They would be run by experienced bank executives who had been carefully vetted for their lending prudence. And because of their pristine balance sheets, they would be comfortable lending to each other -- knowing that they could get more capital if needed.

U.S. stock futures were higher Tuesday morning, after stocks on Monday plummeted to lows not seen since in years as the Dow closed below 10,000 for the first time in four years. After Australia's central bank cut interest rates by the largest amount speculation regarding an interest rate cuts from central banks around the world helped alleviate some worries. Meanwhile, oil rebounded to around $90 a barrel Tuesday in Asia after plunging to an 8-month low Monday, and Bank of America issued a profit warning. Alcoa will unofficially kick off earnings season today.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) shares are trading 9.6% lower in pre-market action after it said Monday its third-quarter profit slid 68% to 15 cents a shares, below analysts' estimates of 61 cents a share. BAC also announced a dividend cut and raise $10 billion in stock offering. Analysts from Robert W. Baird and Deutsche Bank proceeded to cut their own estimates.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) shares are jumping 18% in pre-market trade after it confirmed plans to spin off its manufacturing operations to a new joint venture, Foundry Co., with an Abu Dhabi investment firm. The other part will be focused on designing microprocessors.

In a move that shows the extent of the Fed's concern about the economy beyond the financial sector, the agency may start to buy debt from American companies.

According to The New York Times, "Under a proposal being discussed with the Treasury Department, the Fed could buy vast amounts of the unsecured short-term debt that companies rely on to finance their day-to-day activities." The central bank may buy commercial paper from corporations and municipalities.

The program would push the Fed's intervention too far. In entering the industrial, service, and municipal markets it would violate the spirit of its charter to control economic activity by controlling interest rates and lending money to financial companies which are under some level of regulation which comes directly from the agency.

The broader commercial paper purchases would, in essence, make the agency a local bank for financing such a broad range of business entities that they would no longer have to stand on their own. While it may help many corporations secure short term cash, the Fed has other tools to do that.

The first action that could help the short-term lending markets would be for the Fed to cut interest rates to zero. Banks would have much less risk taking on loans. The Fed could also insist that its short-term lending plan designed to help banks and brokerages come with requirements that some of that money be put into the system in the form of commercial loans.

The new Fed program would go too far by putting its hands into far-flung corners of the economy.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Even the children who have been very good may get coal in their stockings this year. There may not be enough money around to buy them toys, PCs, or game consoles.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "As the financial crisis spread last month, some U.S. retailers hit the panic button, offering more generous discounts than they did at this time last year." It looks like the tactic has not been working. People are not showing up in stores no matter how cheap things are.

But are tough holidays such a bad things for kids? Maybe not. It may prepare them for a few years of tough sledding. It may get them ready for a period where their parents may be out of work or their college funds don't get funded. It may force them to get jobs when they are 16 to help the family out.

There is a good chance that this recession may be long and deep. That means no one is likely to be untouched whether it be man, woman, or child. Why try to trick the youngsters into thinking things are OK by overspending for bight holidays? Next year, they may not be able to buy school books or that new set of Air Jordans.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

UBS has lowered its forecast for China GDP growth to 8% for 2009. According to Reuters, "It is the second time in less than three months that UBS has lowered its forecast for Chinese GDP growth next year."

Since China has been growing at a pace of over 10% a year for most of the last decade, an 8% increase would be quite a come down. It also raises the question of what a recession would look like in China. In the U.S., it is usually defined at two consecutive quarters of negative growth. This is a fancy way of saying the economy is shrinking.

In China, a recession might appear very different. It might only require a moderating of growth to put financial pressure on the middle class. The stock markets in China are already signaling trouble. The Shanghai Composite is off over 60% in less than a year.

If China's expansion slows it will probably be because it is exporting fewer goods to the West where a number of large economies could be suffering and consumers could be in distress. China would not be able to bring as many people into its large cities to work in factories. That, in turn, could cut the purchase rate of items like cars and electronics. With fewer people relocating, the value of real estate could also fall.

In other words, the Chinese economy does not necessarily have to shrink to hurt a lot of businesses and workers in the country. The term "recession" may be relative.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Let it be written that on the sixth day of October in the year 2008, the irrational exuberance that defined the 1990s came screeching to a halt.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 10,000 this morning for the first time since 2004. Gosh, it seems like only yesterday that investors were as giddy as school girls when the leading stock market indicator crossed that once-unthinkable benchmark. Remember the Dow 10,000 hats? I bet the people who bought them along with other keepsakes of better times plan to unload them on eBay so they can fill up their tanks with gas. In fact, some people have already started selling bull market memorabilia. A Lehman Brothers coffee mug is available on eBay for $14.99, while the book Dow 36,000 is attracting no bidders for the bargain-basement price of $1.93.

These are lousy times. The real estate market continues to suck wind. Holiday retail sales are expected to be their worst in years. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of federal bailouts have failed to unfreeze the credit market or provide any relief for homeowners hurt by the subprime crisis. A good part of the market's downturn can be blamed on lax corporate governance, including outrageous CEO pay.

The Federal Reserve has had a large role in determining which banks and brokerage firms stayed in business. Now it may have to make a similar set of decisions about big corporations.

According to Bloomberg, "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may find the next fronts of the financial crisis to be just as chilling as last month's downfall of Wall Street titans: its spread to corporate America and state and local government."

Large companies including Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) are having to pay huge premiums for debt or tap lines of credit. The Fed has the ability to lend cash to non-financial companies, but the dilemma raises the old question of which firms will make it and which will not. It is similar to the decisions it made with financial firms like Bear Stearns.

It is clear that there is not enough money to go around as hundreds of fairly sizable corporations cannot get loans. The Fed is unlikely to have the capital to help them all.

That means there will have to be some litmus test for who is helped like corporate revenue, number of employees, whether the company is in a strategic industry like defense, and so on.

Which would you save?

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.