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Thomas Rowen of Bartlett is director of institutional portfolio management, Fifth Third Bank-Chicago

What do you think of billionaire Warren Buffett supporting the bond insurer market?

"It's good from the standpoint that you have an interest on the part of some major investors like Buffett to invest in the bond insurers. However, I don't think his particular investment is quite substantive. He's kind of skimming the cream and not really offering to bail-out the most at-risk bond insurers … There will be a longer process of healing to go on in the bond insurance industry and that will not shake out for a long time."

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What do you think of comments made by Bernanke and Paulson last week.

"I think when you look at all the testimony (by both Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) that was significant -- there is pretty good reason to believe that A., we may not be in a recession at all. And if we are, it will probably be a very brief and very shallow one. And B., going into the later part of this year, with a combination of considerably lower interest rates, strong global growth, continued pretty high employment in the U.S., and the stimulus package that was signed by the President, there's pretty good reason to believe we'll see better growth -- maybe considerably better growth -- later in the course of this year."

How are the markets reacting to this news?

"The markets are reacting day by day, pretty significantly. You know, they are up 100, 200 or 250 points and then down a 100 or 200 points in a day as they try to get a feel for what the real direction of the economy is really going to be and how quickly it is going to happen."

How is earnings season going?

"Earnings for the first time (in recent years) have been overall a surprise on the downside. For the last few years earnings have tended to surprise on the upside. They tended to be better than expected."

What might move markets this week?

"Housing starts will be announced. Building permits will be announced #8230; Then you are also going to get the Consumer Price Index ( a gauge of consumer price inflation) on the 20th, too. That is always a big focus #8230; From my vantage point that's the big economic data. Also any commentary that comes out of Ben Bernanke next week and out of Paulson, that will be a big focus. (The question) will be if we are in a recession and how we will turn it around. That will be the big focal point."