How bad is this stock market? So bad that even those of us old enough to remember the Johnny Carson routine can't think of an appropriate zinger.

The Swiss bank USB has announced it will write down 12 billion euros in connection with the US credit crisis. The bank's nett loss for the first quarter of this year amounts to seven-point-six billion euros. Last year the bank sustained a nett loss of two-point-six billion euros, its first ever full-year loss.

According to today's reports the Worker Productivity in USA has increased 1.8%, which is more than was forecast earlier. The good news is that while the U.S. worker productivity has grown the labor costs growth is muted as well.

The widely followed stock market averages finished higher Friday after working through a number of conflicting signals. On the negative side, Google (525.00, GOOG) was off on disappointing earnings results and recession concerns were fanned by both non-farm payrolls and construction spending.

Most Asian markets made strong gains Wednesday, while share prices surged higher in European trading. The sharply rising stock values follow a dramatic late rally in U.S. markets on Wednesday.

Intel's weak outlook is punishing not only the tech stocks, but also the entire US markets. While the stocks are poised to open weak, they have come out of their worst levels.

U.S. markets closed mixed on Thursday from continued concerns over the uncertain credit markets and a weakening economy. A slew of poor news from the financial sector set the sour tone for Thursday.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates only 25 basis points rocked the U.S. markets.

The stock markets in USA are looking to make modest gains and to the possible Federal reserve interest rate cut. Fed's rate cut action may overshadow the subprime losses and give the markets a lift.

The New York Federal Reserve, acknowledging ”heightened pressures” in money markets that are expected to last through the rest of the year, said it plans to conduct a series of repurchase agreements aimed at boosting liquidity in the credit markets. The announcement from the New York Fed, which carries out monetary policy set by the U.S. Federal Reserve, essentially puts in writing many of the steps the Fed often takes at this time of year.

The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) released the minutes of its September policy meeting this afternoon (known as Fed Minutes), inspiring Wall Street to boost the Dow to yet another all-time record high close today. Yes, there's still a half hour of trading time left in the session, but I'm going to go ahead and call this one.

More openness and transparency must be in the marketplace to bolster the trust of investors and the public, Barack Obama said on Monday.