NEW YORK, NY (Catholic Online) - The market performed so poorly on Friday, that the Dow and S&P 500 posted their worst Thanksgiving week since 1932.

As the S&P 500, and the NASDAQ showed continued decline, the CBOE Volatility Index, considered to be the best gauge of fear in the stock market, ended up, above 34. Those numbers show that investors are very troubled by tenuous economic situation around the world, with particular concern for Europe.

Many traders are only looking at short-term deals, because nobody really knows what the long-term forecast should be. For the next 30 days, experts are warning the stock market will continue to see marked decline.

Todd Schonberger, managing director at LandColt Trading said, "again, we are trading on very thin volume -- you're going to have continued downward pressure over the next 30 days. It's very difficult to be long in this market because you have so many issues -- there's more potential for negative headlines than positive ones."

In Europe, Standard & Poor's announced another downgrade of Belgium from AA+ to AA. The downgrade reflects continued pessimism that the European debt crisis will not be contained despite the best efforts of international bankers, investors, and political leaders. 

Over the past several months repeated deals have been made, compromises have been reached, and deadlines have been passed, but the threat of default still looms large and is spreading. Greece, Italy, and Spain all have substantial debt issues that are threatening the euro zone and world economy. Last week, it was announced that concerns over euro zone of debt had even affected the German stock market which has so far been one of the strongest in the euro zone.

In the United States, some of the strongest black Friday shopping in years took place, however it remains to be seen if shoppers will continue to turn out and spend in the retail sector. The black Friday boom could be a sign of economic health, or it could be the opposite -- consumers could be taking advantage of bargains and planning to tighten their belts throughout the rest of the season.
Until analysts can sense a clear direction regarding the holiday retail market and the euro zone debt crisis, it remains likely that the markets will continue to trade lower and lower, at least through the end of the year.

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