The Week Ahead: The Week Ahead: Recession fears continue to grip Wall Street as the DOW had its worst week in almost five years. The service industry reported its worst slump since 2002. Key statistics this week include: business inventories and advanced retail sales numbers on Wednesday, jobless claims on Thursday, with import prices, industrial production, and the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Survey on Friday. Also of note, Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson give testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.

Stocks to Watch: Investors may want to avoid MGM Mirage (MGM) as it issued an earnings warning do to rising expansion costs and weakness in hotel revenues. Health insurer Centene Corp. (CNC) missed its 4th quarter forecast by a wide margin as its stock collapsed below the 200 day moving average. Cognizant Technology (CTSH) gapped up after it showed strong 4th quarter profits on a 41% jump in revenue and raised its '08 forecast. Brush Wellman (BW) profits dropped 60% on cutbacks in orders from its largest customer Motorola.

Special Note: Tightening credit conditions is likely to put pressure on company earnings for several more quarters. Financial stocks led the way down as a myriad of problems continue to plague companies in this sector. The major OTC Indexes have already taken out their January lows on a closing basis and are taking more of a leading role in the markets downtrend. A parallel trend channel formed from the 2002 lows on the NDX would be breached on a close below 1720 and could spark another major sell off.

Commentary provided by Barry Ward, Registered Principal, NobleTrading.com, Inc.

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