Take on the ticker

Thomas Rowen of Bartlett is Director of Institutional Portfolio Management, Fifth Third Bank-Chicago.

What moved markets last week?

"In the last week, the market has been pretty ugly. We saw continuing concerns over the economy. And it has been roiled over concerns about the banking industry and the credit problems that are still out there - caused by the housing situation and by the weakness in the overall economy."

Does the market have any direction right now?

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"Earlier this year the market bottomed in the third week of January. For all intents and purposed, the market has traded in a range, truly, ever since that. In the past week, it has been more negative."

Oil hit a record high last week. Is it still a good investment?

"Oil, right now, is a major consideration in our economic health and it is a major consideration in what is happening to the overall stock market. Oil prices have continued to remain high. Even though oil prices are high and oil company profitability is tremendous, we are starting to become leery of oil and other commodities going forward. It has gone from being a good investment to being a bubble to, possibly, becoming a mania. I really don't think getting into oil ... is a great idea right now. But I don't see pressure easing in the near future."

What does Fifth Third think the GDP will do this year?

"Fifth Third expects there will be slow growth, but there will be growth over the next couple quarters ... We expect growth to be in the 1 percent range, maybe 1.5 percent, in the third quarter. But there is a lot of reason to believe we could see a weak patch going into the fourth quarter ... Overall, for this year we think we're looking at 1.5 to 1.7 percent total GDP growth in 2008."

What could move markets this week?

"Next week the focus will be on the Federal Reserve because the next Fed meeting will wrap up on Tuesday. And the (Federal Open Market Committee) will come out with their policy statement in the afternoon and the expectation is that the Fed (interest) rate will be left alone ... Certainly, everybody will be reading the tea leaves, in terms of the comments that come out of that meeting ... Oil and the impact of oil on inflation and oil-related products and their impact on the consumer (remains) a major underlying stressor."