By Clyde Noel

Stock Report

Investors nervously scan the horizon for signs the market is ready to move upward again. Instead, investors just experienced the worst week for stocks since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

For the past week, The Dow industrials lost 3.4 percent and fell below 10,000 to 9,910. The Nasdaq lost 7.4 percent and fell to 1663, the lowest in two years.

The Town Crier index fell right in line and lost 9.6 percent for the week. A $50,000 investment at the beginning of the year would be worth $45,250 today.

Heavy losses were incurred by several of the Town Crier companies to bring down the index. BEA Systems lost 20.44 for the week; Harmonic, -28 percent; LSI Logic, -20.21 percent; Network Associates, -27.34 percent; Silicon Graphics, down 30.13 percent and Sun Microsystems, down 12 percent.

What’s happening? Consumer spending is slowing down and business spending has not recovered. It’s hard to call this an economic recovery period with consumer optimism falling fast.

The economy will recover, but it’s not clear when, with so many investors sitting on their money and not investing. When things begin to look more optimistic, hordes of money sitting on the sidelines will be put to work in the stock market. Look for a little relief this week as stocks start to climb up as buyers nibble at current low valuations.

Frustration levels among the bulls result in creeping doubt. It seems that many traders are leery of the market and write it off as “too risky” or “too dangerous.”

Noel, a seasoned investor, covers the stock market for the Town Crier.