Very little good news rode over the horizon last week as investors struggled to come to terms with the stimulus bill and the continued uncertainty over the stability of banks in the United States.

As our week and month ended Friday, mega-bank Citigroup inked a deal with the government that converts preferred shares into common shares, thus ostensibly giving the Treasury more control. Although Wall Street has been expecting such a move, it still was not universally applauded.

"Citi has been a leading indicator the whole way down and the dilution that shareholders took today is sort of a leading indicator of what could happen to other banks, particularly the weak ones," said Kevin Shacknofsky, co-portfolio manager of the Alpine Dynamic Dividend Fund in Purchase, N.Y.

In addition, market bellwether General Electric announced that it will cut its dividend, and shares fell. Wall Street was also trying to absorb the news - revised from earlier estimates - that showed gross domestic product numbers dropping farther at the end of 2008 than earlier calculated, at an annualized drop of 6.2 percent, the worst since the first three months of 1982, when the economy dropped at a 6.4-percent annualized rate.

The Journal Record Index got a slight reprieve, after a two-day rise sparked hopes that weak demand for oil in the United States might be changing. However, as our session ended Friday, oil dropped below $43 per barrel, and the index shed 18.74 points, or 3.34 percent, and closed at 541.59. Declining issues still outpaced advancing issues by a 28-to-15 count.

Shares of Devon fell $4.22, or 8.81 percent and ended at $43.67. Last week Devon chairman Larry Nichols was one of the oil executives who encouraged Congress to OK the expansion of offshore drilling. "We can help put America on the road to economic recovery," Nichols said as he addressed the House Natural Resources Committee. Recently Interior Secretary Ken Salazar suspended offshore drilling, saying that he wants to review the plan.

Arena Resources rose on the news that its sales production in 2008 increased 49 percent from the previous year, and that its total year-end proven reserves were ahead 18.4 percent. Arena said last week that it will release its fourth-quarter results Tuesday. ARD moved up $1.60, or 8.07 percent, and closed at $21.42.

Shares of GMX Resources dropped last week after the company reported fourth-quarter and 2008 year-end results. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, GMXR announced a loss of $111 million, or $7.27 per share, compared to net income of $4.9 million, or 28 cents per share in the comparable year-ago quarter. GMX Resources cited the crossover to a Haynesville/Bossier horizontal drilling program from a Cotton Valley vertical drilling program, and a weakening of market prices for crude oil and natural gas. GMXR lost $3.82, or 18.13 percent, and ended at $17.25.

Originally published by Margot Crabtree.

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