According to the Commerce Department, the economy grew at 3.1% during the fourth quarter, which is higher than analysts had been expecting to see. Going into today’s report analysts had been expecting to see revised GDP output of 3.0%.

Last month the Commerce Department made a preliminary forecast of 2.8% GDP growth during the fourth quarter.

Most analysts agree that GDP has continued to grow in the first quarter, but rising oil prices over the past month will probably prevent us from seeing the same sort of growth that the economy enjoyed during the fourth quarter.

A key ingredient to the current economic recovery is consumer spending. During the final 3 months of 2010 consumer spending rose 4.0%, which is the most it has risen during a 3 month period since the fourth quarter 2006.

In reaction to the news the DOW is currently up 0.3%, the NASDAQ has gained 0.3%, and the S&P is up 0.2%.

The DOW lost about 25% between the second week of January and early March, but has made up a lot of lost ground over the past couple of weeks, as investors are starting to believe that the worst is behind us. We have been getting a little encouragement in the form of consumer confidence rising a bit, some faith that Obama is going to be able to free up the credit market a little and help boost both the financial and automotive industries.

It is still unclear as to what shape the economy is really in at this time, and how quickly we can break out of the current recession, but investors have been expressing optimism the past couple weeks, and we will see just how strong that momentum is, and if we can carry it into the next quarter.

The DOW was down 1.04% today, the NASDAQ traded 0.5% lower, and the S&P dropped another 1.0% in today’s trading.

For the week, the DOW dropped a total of 5.2%, and is sitting at lows that we have not seen since back in November when fear was running rapid among traders regarding the future of the economy.

One thing that is keeping traders in a selling mode is the waiting game to see what version of the current stimulus package actually gets approved. In today’s news, the House of Representatives passed their version on the stimulus package, a $787 billion plan to boost the economy. The next step is to get the bill pass the Senate, which is expected to cast its vote later today.

President Obama was optimistic that the bill had made it through the House, and now awaits to see if the Senate will send him the bill for his approval next week.

In other news today, two of the big banks, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup announced that they were enacting a moratorium on new foreclosures until they see what sort of plan Obama announces to help ease the huge increases in foreclosures that are hitting the market. Both banks have suspended new foreclosures until the first part of March in hopes of easing the pain that many homeowners are currently dealing with.

The markets will be closed on Monday, so we will have to wait until Tuesday to see if the market can make up some of its recent losses.

Enjoy your Valentines Day, and your long 3 day weekend.

While most retailers are facing hard time, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) actually had a sales increase in the month. As consumers tighten up their spending, and look for cheaper products, it doesn’t really come as much of a surprise that shoppers are heading into Wal-Mart stores, which typically have the reputation of lower prices.

Investors continue to express concern that the stimulus package that was recently passed in the House is not going to get passed when the Senate gets its chance to vote on the new plan. There is still a good deal of concern over what the new package is going to do to address the ailing bank industry.

Consumer spending fell again in December, as the Commerce Department announces that personal spending in December fell by another 1%, as incomes dropped by 0.2% in the month as layoffs continue to mount. Analysts had been expecting to see consumer spending off by 0.9% in the month.

The Fed stated that economic growth had slowed “markedly in recent months,” and that the cut was necessary.

Futures are trading higher this morning, and it looks like we should break the five day losing streak on Wall Street, and get some much needed bounces in some pretty beaten up stocks today.

Look for another sell off on Wall Street, as futures are indicating a very sharp drop at the open. After the volatile week last week, many of us had some hopes that the Bush approved $700 billion bailout plan that was passed late on Friday would help spark a slight bounce, but that is not to be the case, and stocks are set for a much lower open to get the week started.

There is going to be a lot of pain out there today.

Futures are trading higher today, but it is going to take a lot more than one day of upside to make up what we lost yesterday.

Yesterday started off slowly as investors were skeptical that the proposed Bush bailout plan was going to be enough to save the troubled economy, but that fear turned to panic once the market realized that the plan was not going to go through all at yesterday afternoon.

Lawmakers are going to be on holiday until Thursday to observe the Jewish holidays, but there should still be some action taking place behind closed doors aimed at ironing out a new deal that will satisfy both Congress and Wall Street. We will see if / when that is able to take place.

The Bush administration is pushing hard for its $700 billion bailout, but Wall Street doesn’t believe that the Bush plan is going to be enough to help bailout the struggling economy, and futures are trading sharply lower this morning now that it appears that plan is going to pass Congress later this week.

There are two main factors at work today, strong earnings from computer giant Dell Computer (NASDAQ: DELL), and positive economic data on consumer spending that came out this morning.

DELL reported its first quarter numbers last night, and easily beat analyst estimates for the quarter, showing earnings of 38 cents per share, which was well above the 34 cents a share that analysts had been expecting to see. The company noted strong growth in both its consumer and commercial business lines as being key components to its strong quarter.

Also giving the market a boost this morning was the release of April consumer spending figures which showed a 0.2% rise in the month of April. This was in-line with what Wall Street was hoping to see, and a sign that the current economic slowdown and record high gasoline prices has not kept Americans from spending.