The Canadian dollar is weakening in comparison to the US dollar, and the slide doesn't appear to be slowing.  However, the latest downturn may be a result of the US dollar's sudden comeback; a result of a surprise rise in June home sales.  For certain Canadians, this slide may actually be of benefit, as many internet businesses get paid in US dollars, and a sliding Canadian dollar yields larger pay after the exchange.  Canadian companies who sell to American customers in Canadian currency may also benefit, as the US dollar will now go a little farther for those consumers.

With the DOW currently above 11,100, a turn around in the stock market doesn't seem quite as imminent as it once did.  Merrill Lynch just reduced their CDO exposure by $11.1 billion after the market close today.  However, as a Merrill Lynch shareholder, you've just been diluted by 20%.  Also, even though the Sirius/XM merger has now been approved, shareholders of both companies aren't exactly feeling like winners.  Even Jim Cramer isn't touching the common stock.  We're going to need a bigger catalyst than another short squeeze if the next rally is going amount to anything, and it seems like it's going to be a long time before we get one.

The market summary chart on Yahoo Finance is showing the Dow at 11,055 right now.  Ouch.  On CNBC today, I caught a story about a man who, due to his bank being in trouble, can only access $171,000 of his $236,000 in life savings because the FDIC doesn't actually insure all of it!  While he knew the FDIC only insures deposits up to $100,000, he thought having separate accounts would get around that.  It didn't.  After going through the worst June since the 1930s, the first two weeks of July have not exactly been comeback rallies, especially now since investment talk in the media has turned from making greater returns to making smaller losses.

A Yahoo News article out today states that the Dow has officially dropped below 11,000 for the first time in two years.  In other negative stock news, Karen Finerman of Fast Money said last night that everyone is betting so heavily against General Motors that it's actually getting difficult to find borrowable shares to short!  It seems like just yesterday that everyone was getting over the Bear Sterns issue and preparing for the next series of rallies; things look a whole lot different now.