Reuters - The S&P 500 hit a 17-month closing high as rising bank shares led a late rally that lifted stocks on Thursday, more than offsetting worries China may move to cool its overheating economy.

AP - Asian stock markets were mixed in early trading Friday after the Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at a 17-month high with investors worried about inflationary pressures in China.

AP - The government's top securities regulator called Thursday for Congress to impose new oversight on financial derivatives, warning that allowing risky instruments like credit default swaps to continue unfettered could bring further economic damage.

AP - A rally in financial stocks Thursday helped the market extend its grind higher to a third day.

AFP - FTSE 100 shares ended in the red on Thursday after the latest batch of mixed economic data and company reports.

AFP - Leading shares weakened on Thursday after unconvincing gains overnight on Wall Street as investors mulled the latest economic data and company news.

AFP - Europe's main stock markets weakened Thursday after unconvincing gains overnight on Wall Street as investors mulled the latest economic data and company news.

Reuters - A spike in Chinese inflation weakened equity markets on Thursday, as investors pondered the prospects of interest rate hikes in one of the world's main economic drivers.

If you have been watching the news at all today you have probably already hard of Boone Pickens and his new plan to help our country become less dependent on foreign oil. The Texas oil tycoon is making all the rounds trying to get the word out about his new website PickensPlan.com. Earlier today Pickens was on Squawk Box touting his plan, and also had a major article in today's USA Today.

The basics of the plan are that Boone Pickens believes America should utilize wind power as a major source of our electric power generation. He believes that more than 20% of our country's electric power usage could be wind generated within the next few years. Pickens is putting his money where his mouth is and building the world's largest wind farm in Texas.

So how does the wind power help our situation with gasoline prices? Pickens believes that natural gas is the cleanest form of transportation fuel available today. The problem is, our country doesn't use natural gas for transportation becaue it is being used for electric generation. Pickens believes that since these natural gas resources are cheaper (less than $1 gallon right now in some places) and are available in the United States we should use these for fuel transportation. By using our country's natural gas resources we could dramatically reduce our need for foreign oil, which in turn should drive down the price of oil substantially.

Today was one of those days on wall street where there are violent intraday swings in both directions. The market opened strong, but by 2 pm the Dow was down more than 160 points. Between 2pm eastern and 3:45 the Dow jumped back into positive territory for the day, before sellers rushed back in and the Dow finished down by 57 points. If you just pick up the paper and see the final numbers on today's trading you'll think it was a monotonous minor selloff, but that was far from the case.

Why do these kind of violent intraday swings happen in the market? When do these swings usually take place? How can you profit from this extreme volatility? These are the questions I will attempt to answer in this post.

On Thursday the June employment report was released by the Labor Department. The news wasn't good, but it could have been worse. Employers cut 62,000 workers in the month of June and the jobless rate held steady at 5.5%. Also in the report, April and May's job losses were increased by 52,000 total. Through the first half of 2008 the U.S. economy has now lost 438,000 jobs.

Let's put the job losses into a little bit of perspective. In 2002 during the most recent economic recession job losses were averaging over 200,000 a month. What we are seeing right now is not the sign of a deep recession, but there are some signs it could be getting worse rather than better. Just this past week the jobless claims jumped to 404,000, the highest level since March. In general any number above 400,000 is considered recessionary. Any continuance of an increase in the jobless claims numbers will almost certainly show up in the next couple employment reports.

As we all know, the stock market has been hit very hard in the last few weeks. There are many blue chip names that have been beaten down to levels they haven't seen in years. While it may not seem that way right now, there are going to prove to be some real deals in the long run on some companies that have proven themselves time and time again. These are five names that I believe could prove to be a value at today's price sometime in the not too distant future.

Top 5 Beaten Down Blue Chips

In a tough market like we have right now you will hear a lot of experts say that high dividend stocks are the safest stocks to be in. This notion is true, but there is one big caveat, only if their dividend is safe. The amateur investor can login to Google Finance or Yahoo Finance and check for the highest yielding stocks and just buy the very highest, but trust me when I say it isn't that easy.

Like many other things in life, if a yield seems too high to be true, it probably is. Case in point is KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY), which on June 12th announced it would be cutting its dividend by 50% because it needed to save money and raise new equity.  Those investors who had decided to purchase KEY just before that because of its great dividend were surely disappointed. This is just one example, and it can certainly be much worse in some circumstances. When companies are having a great amount of financial difficulties it isn't unusual to see them get rid of their dividend altogether.

Currently the highest yielding stock on the S&P 500 is MBIA (NYSE:MBI). The stock is yielding 32.61% despite the fact that it is widely being rumored to be a possible bankruptcy candidate in the near future. Do you really think this is a good stock to buy based on a great dividend payout? Of course it isn't.

So what kind of dividend stock is the type you want to look for? Look for a company that is growing earnings at the same time it is growing its dividend. You don't want the dividend yield to be high because the stock has fallen to the lowest of lows, rather you want a stock that has a good solid dividend yield because the company raises its yield consistently. A good example of this is Johnson and Johnson (NYSE:JNJ). The company yields just under 3% a year, but has raised its dividend payout for an unbelievable 46 straight years! Now that is a dividend stock that an investor can count on.

Don't be lured into thinking that the highest dividend yielding stocks are the best dividend stock investments. Do your research and check out the financial standing of the company. In order to growyourfunds you can't take the easy way out!

One of the most interesting websites I have seen that has been recently created is howispentmystimulus. The site is dedicated to collecting stories from people who have received economic stimulus checks on exactly how they used that money. How does it work? First, you simply go to the website and click on the tell your story button at the top of the site to get to the entry page. You then must upload a photo of either yourself or your purchase and then you start typing up your story in 250 characters or less. After putting your name and address information in the entry, you'll be ready to submit your entry. The entry process itself is very simple.

The site puts all the entries into categories so that users who browse to the site can see what categories have the most entries. Currently, travel and vacation is just edging out vehicle and gas for the top spot on the list. The debt and credit card section is fourth and the invest/save section is ranked sixth most popular. Based on my earlier post regarding what you should do with your stimulus check, you know that I believe the wisest move is to pay off all your debts and whatever is left over, invest it.

All across the street today there was a heated discussion going on of whether the Federal Reserve is to blame for the recent market action and today's steep losses in all the major indices. Many out there were saying that by holding rates steady yesterday the Fed was abandoning its strong dollar and inflation fighting policy stance. Larry Kudlow, who has a nightly show on CNBC, made his opinion known tonight. Kudlow said that he believes today's action was certainly because of the Fed and that oil and gold prices today back that up. He is certainly not alone in his thoughts, as many on the street believe that the Fed has dropped the ball and that prices are going to get much worse in a hurry.

Are those who believe the Fed is being too soft on inflation and the dollar spot on, or are they off the mark? This is a very difficult question which has more than one logical answer.

Things got very ugly today on the street as stocks were hit with their second largest down day this year. Good news was nowhere to be found today as oil topped $140, and Goldman downgraded General Motors and Citigroup. The Dow tanked by 358 points. The Nasdaq plunged 80 points. The broader S&P 500 fell 39 points, or 3%.

There was nowhere to hide in the stock market today, but the biggest sector losers were financials, technology, and capital goods.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) shares shed another 6.76% and hit a new low today after announcing it will layoff 7,500 employees after the Countrywide deal closes. American Express (NYSE:AXP) hit a 5 year low today, falling 5.01% on strong volume. Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) shares plunged by 7.15% in today's trading. NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) fell 5.07% and hit a 52 week low. Principal Financial (NYSE:PFG) also hit a new low today, falling by 7.6%.

Tech stocks were hurt by investors belief that Research in Motion future forecasts cast some doubts about tech spending in the next few quarters. Baidu.com (Nasdaq:BIDU) shares lost 5.22% on average volume. Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), which has been one of the strongest tech stocks of late, fell by 5.12% today. Sandisk Corporation (Nasdaq:SNDK) fell 5.05% and has now lost almost 60% in the last year. MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE:WFR) fell 5.23% as all of the solar plays weakened throughout the day.

The capital goods sector was also hit hard today. Jacobs Engineering Group (NYSE:JEC) fell 5.14% on the day as the construction services group fell across the board. Manitowoc (NYSE:MTW) plunged more than 7% on the session. Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) shares plunged 8.44% during the session, but are rising afterhours as the company reported smaller than expected losses.

Notable 52 week lows

There are many ways to interpret consumer confidence reports and how useful they are to predict consumer spending trends, but there is no denying that today's report was shockingly weak. The Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 50.4 in June, well below expectations of a decline to 56. This is the fifth weakest level ever recorded by this index and it is the weakest since 1992.

What really stands out to me inside this report is the future Expectations index. The future Expectations index hit an All-Time low, plunging to a terribly discouraging level of 41. This index tracks how consumers feel about the future of the economy. Obviously, consumers across the country are expressing their belief that the economy is going into the tank in a hurry.

It's the continuing story of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer on wall street. No I don't mean traders, I mean the sectors that have done well continue to do so, while those that have lagged the market are accelerating to the downside. Today the Dow fell by less than one point, while the Nasdaq was down by 20 points. The S&P 500 was almost exactly unchanged.

It was a completely tug of war on wall street as the energy and basic material sectors pulled the market higher but the financials and the transports drug the market lower.

Take a look at the damage being done in the financial and transportation sector as far as the 52 week low list. All these names hit new 52 week lows today:

52 week lows in the financial and transportation sectors

At the same time these stocks are floundering because of economic worries, we have other companies who have no issue with where the economy is right now. The problem with that is they are basic material and energy names. This means that consumers are paying outrageous prices at the grocery and the gas tanks, but I'm sure that you already knew that unless you live under a rock.

In fact, despite the overall markets weakness of late there are a few notable new 52 week highs in this group today.

52 week highs in the energy and basic materials sectors

Basically the main loser in this is the consumer. The two groups that are doing so well are only doing well because of huge gains in prices that are being passed on to consumers. It obviously also isn't in the best interest of consumers to have transports or financials doing so poorly.

When will this trend end? There is no end in sight, but things certainly will change over time. In the past as the street was the most negative on these sectors they turned it around, and it will surely happen again, but when?

Saudi Arabia announced today that it will increase production for a third-straight month in an effort to curb record oil prices. The kingdom plans to raise its production by 200,000 barrels to 9.7 million barrels next month. While this can't be taken as bad news, it seems that there are already a lot of skeptics as to whether this will actually cause crude oil prices to move lower. John Hall, of John Hall associates believes that in order for the increase to make oil prices move lower at all it would have to be at least 500,000 barrels a month.

Many, including myself, believe that this is nothing more than a public relations move on the Saudis part. They want to be seen as doing everything they can to drive the price of oil lower. In reality, the Saudis themselves know very well that this small increase will do virtually nothing in the whole scheme of things. The longer term problems will remain, and those who continue to think that supply is meeting demand are simply kidding themselves. The Saudis want to attribute the crude oil gains to pure speculation in the oil market because then they won't be pressured as strongly to increase production drastically.

We all know that the banking sector is extremely out of favor on wall street, but what on earth is going on in Ohio? Since I reside in Columbus, Ohio I thought I would take a brief look at this amazingly unloved group.

There are four major regional banks headquarted in the Buckeye state. The biggest of them from a market cap standpoint is Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq:FITB). The second largest in the group is KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY). The third largest is National City Corporation (NYSE:NCC). The smallest of the big four is Huntington Bancshares (Nasdaq:HBAN). 

Let's take a quick look at the performance of each of these stocks:

As you can see, the pain in the Buckeye state is extremely widespread. National City has fallen the hardest and was the first to fall because of their high amounts of exposure to risky mortgages. Fifth Third and Key have both warned of extensive write downs and cut their dividend by 60% and 50% respectively. Huntington just tonight announced that it expects 2008 chargeoffs to be at the high side of current expectations.

Over the past few weeks the debate has been raging, is it speculation driving oil prices or is it pure economics 101, not enough supply to keep up with demand? There are some big names on both sides. George Soros has been public about his belief that oil speculators have driven the recent price surge and that something must be done about it. Soros believes that speculators are causing a bubble in oil that could cause a massive recession in the American and global economies. Jim Cramer, the famous host of CNBC's Mad Money, is on the other side of this argument. Jim believes that oil prices are high because demand is rampant. Cramer also says that people should get use to the high oil prices, because they are here to stay.

The truth here is that both of the crowds have a sound argument. Demand form foreign nations has absolutely skyrocketed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that many Chinese are buying cars now instead of riding bicycles. Supply also has not grown because there have been no more oil finds and OPEC is perfectly happy with high prices. On the other hand, the speculation argument is lent plenty of credence when we consistently see the massive swings in oil prices that we have recently. Oil prices gaining $11 in one day is almost unheard of, and for someone to say there is no speculation there, they are crazy.

GrowYourFunds RSS readers know by now that the real passion of mine is the stock market, but today I wanted to step back and look at a personal finance issue. I wanted to follow up yesterday's post regarding which companies are poised to benefit from the spending of economic stimulus checks by taking a look at what you should do with your tax rebate/economic stimulus check.

The most obvious answer to this question is that it depends on your situation, but there are some steps you can take a look at to decide which category you might fit in.

The first thing you should do is look at any debt you may have. If you have any kind of debt you must pay it off first. Many Americans have credit card debt and they are being eaten alive by it. The average rate Americans are paying on that debt is about 13%, which means if you have $1,000 of debt you are paying $130 a year on that debt. You simply cannot afford to pay that high of an interest rate if you can avoid it at all. If you have debt then you need to pay it off before anything else, period.

Since the economic stimulus checks have either been received or will soon be received by almost all Americans, I wanted to take tonight to look at five stocks that should benefit quite nicely from those checks. We all know that when Americans receive a check of $600 or even $1200, many will end up putting alot of that back in the economy even if they do want to try to save some money up. What kind of places will they probably be spending it most? What stocks could receive a near-term bounce because of this bump?

Top 5 Stocks to Benefit from Economic Stimulus Check Spending