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U.S. consumers' confidence weakened to the lowest in 16 years in March, pointing to recession, as worries over fading job prospects and rising inflation clouded the outlook, a survey showed on Friday. The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its final index of confidence fell to 69.5 in March -- its lowest since February 1992, when it was at 68.8 -- from the previous month's reading of 70.8. Economists polled by Reuters expected a reading of 70.0 in the index of confidence, which the preliminary report had said was at 70.5 in early March. The index of consumer expectations fell to 60.1, its lowest since January 1992, when it was at 59.1. In February this year it was at 62.4.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said in a release that "it is now nearly unanimous among consumers that the economy has already entered a recession." "Consumer confidence slipped due to growing concerns about weakening prospects for the economy as well as anticipated increases in unemployment and inflation during the year ahead," the statement said. The report showed the final reading on one-year inflation expectations jumped to 4.3 percent in March from 3.6 percent in February. That was the highest final reading since October 2005, when gasoline prices were soaring in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but was down from the preliminary March reading of 4.5 percent.

The index of consumers' economic outlook for the next 12 months fell to 46 -- the lowest since a similar reading in January 1991 -- from 54 in February. Financial markets showed little reaction to the data. Stocks remained higher on the day, mainly benefiting from an earlier boost due to benign inflation data in the U.S. personal income report. The dollar was up versus the yen and the euro. Government bonds, which usually benefit from weak economic data, were mixed.

Source: Reuters

Just last week, Visa, the number 1 credit card company went public on the stock market. While there were very few people that got in on the initial public offering price of $44, several individual investors did buy into Visa (V) as the price increased to almost $70. While the lowest price that most people have been able to get shares at was $55, a profit of nearly $15 a share would be great if you purchased several shares. Now, it seems like many of the companies and banks that got in on the lowest possible price to date, the $44 IPO price, are starting to sell off for some presumably HUGE profits.

Unfortunately, it's not really helping out the price of shares right now as the profits from last week that were made have done nothing but deteriorate today. While some may see it as a time to get out before it goes lower, people should realize that for a company such as Visa, it's a great time to get into the market, rather than out. If you aren't interested in short term gains and are in it for the longer term, several months to a year, you can likely invest now, when prices are relatively low only to increase your profits that much more down the road. Even at some of the highest prices last week, Visa may have still been a great buy for those looking at longer term investments. Read more »

I have found another Sharebuilder promotion code that one could use in their journey to riches. As I posted about a couple days ago, one can open a Sharebuilder account with $50 and continuing financing more accounts off that same $50 due to free account bonuses. There are several codes which I'm not listing due to the fact that they aren't for $50 and would take some more money out of your bank account, which defeats the purpose of what I am looking to do. One can easily find several other codes though by looking at various other sites. In the process, I have found another code that is currently working, but it has a slight condition attached. Read more »

What could be better than getting free money? Well, I don't think there is much better, especially with the current state of affairs in the economy, so I'm going to help people out. In case you don't know, Sharebuilder is an online brokerage owned and operated by ING Direct. You can check them out by going to their site and see what all is there. It's probably not the best brokerage around, but the accounts have good pricing options (like free) and with this offer, you'll get a few dollars for free as well. How it works is that you go and open an account, then use one of the following promotion codes on the first page that is there. The codes only work for individual accounts as far as I'm aware, so that is the type of account you'll want to open. Make sure the box is checked that you're responding to a promotion and then put in one of the following codes, all of which will get you $50. Read more »

U.S. stocks had the steepest weekly loss since July after unemployment increased to a two-year high and manufacturing declined, bolstering speculation that a recession will stymie profit growth. Intel Corp. tumbled the most since January 2006, leading semiconductor shares in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to the biggest drop in 5 1/2 years. D.R. Horton Inc., Centex Corp., Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. and other homebuilders staged the biggest slump since the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Citigroup Inc., Fannie Mae and National City Corp. drove the S&P 500 Financials Index to the lowest in 38 months.

"There's a lot of blood. It has not been pretty,'' said Joseph Keating, who helps manage about $3 billion as chief investment officer at First American Asset Management in Birmingham, Alabama. "How slow is the economy going to be and what does it mean for earnings? That for me is the big issue.''

The S&P 500 retreated 4.5 percent to 1,411.63 this week, the steepest fall in five months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 4.2 percent to 12,800.18. That brought its loss since Dec. 31 to 3.5 percent, the worst first three days of any year since 1904, according to Bloomberg data. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 6.4 percent to 2,504.65, the lowest since April. Smaller companies fell more. The Russell 2000 Index, whose members have a median market value of $541 million, lost 6.5 percent to 721.6. Read more »