It was a bad week for equity investors, with all three indexes posting sizable losses, though US Treasury debt saw a pop on signs that the economy continues to weaken. The S&P 500 gave up 3.1 percent in this short trading week, with the Nasdaq Composite sliding 4.7 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average giving up 2.8 percent. Crude oil also gave up about 8 percent for the week.

The US indexes enjoyed a mid-week rally when the news hit that second quarter GDP rallied to show 3.3 percent growth, beating analyst expectations of 2.7 percent. Unfortunately, the momentum couldn’t be maintained through Friday. The Commerce Dept released personal income data, which showed incomes had fallen 0.7 percent in July, the biggest drop since August 2005.

All three US indexes trended down this week, though we caught a nice rally today when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke commented that he saw inflation slowing into 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.3 percent; the S&P 500 lost 0.5 percent; and the Nasdaq Composite gave up 1.5 percent.

All told, it was a tough week on Wall Street, though two of the three major indexes posted weekly gains. The S&P 500 posted a weak gain of 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.6 percent, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.6 percent.

Morgan Stanley, the second largest US securities firm, reportedly told thousands of its clients that they won’t be allowed to draw money against their home equity lines of credit as consumers fell behind on their payments at the fastest pace in two decades in the first quarter.

We’ve had a choppy week on Wall Street as traders continue to seek some direction from both positive and negative news. All three of the major indexes are relatively flat this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 0.4 percent, the Nasdaq Composite ended the week flat and the S&P 500 tacked on 0.2 percent.

We had a nice midweek rally when financials Bank of America and Wachovia reported that their second quarter performance wasn’t as bad as expected. That helped push those banks up 10 percent and almost 14 percent for the week, respectively, and generated additional buying interest in other players.

The Down Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 posted modest gains for the week, up 3.6 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, as the initial earnings announcements from a few major financials were better than expected. And government-sponsored enterprises (GSE) are set to keep their doors open one way or another. The Nasdaq Composite gained 2 percent on decent numbers from IBM and Microsoft.

All three major US indexes continued to extend their losses this week. The S&P 500 settled into official bear market territory on Wednesday after it closed 2.3 percent lower, putting it off its October high by more than 20 percent. For the week, the S&P 500 lost 1.8 percent, the Down Jones Industrial Average knock off 1.6 percent and the Nasdaq Composite sank 0.3 percent.

All three major indexes posted weekly declines. The Nasdaq Composite was the biggest loser, down 2.1 percent. The S&P 500 lost 1.3 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.5 percent. It was also a brutal first half. The Dow slipped 14.4 percent, the Nasdaq gave up 13.8 percent and the S&P 500 shed 12.8 percent.