Worries rise that stimulus package could be held up… Ford stock rises after quarterly results… Initial jobless claims on tap… S&P 500 futures off 6.70 points, Dow futures off 52 points, Nasdaq futures off 4.75 points…

Goldman cuts 2009 oil price forecast… OPEC should make severe output cut, says president… Russia says ready to work with OPEC on output cuts

In the currency market, the dollar sank against the euro. Late Friday, the euro was trading at $1.2587 vs. $1.2453 on Thursday. There were no hard economic numbers out on Friday. The major news item seems to have been the belief that President-elect Obama intends to name New York Fed President Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary.

Selling stuff you bought with borrowed money is a process that’s mostly been confined to the financial markets in 2008. But now we see the behavior migrating into the economy. At the household level, a collective sense of thrift is beginning to set in. People are selling what they don’t need to raise cash.

Citigroup Inc. (C) today (Monday) unveiled plans to cut more than 50,000 jobs in the “near term” and slash expenses by 20% to preserve capital as it faces a global slowdown that’s expected to push well into 2009.

One of the follies of the Bush administration was the notion that the class of money-shufflers who got us into the credit crunch could somehow be trusted to get us out of it.  Which is what makes the Obama administration such a breath of fresh — oh, wait, never mind.

The typhoon of commentary that’s blown around the world a step behind the financial tsunami that’s wrecking everything, two little words have been curiously absent: “fraud” and “swindle.” But aren’t they really at the core of what has happened? Wall Street took the whole world “for a ride” and now a handful of Wall Street’s erstwhile princelings have shifted ceremoniously into U.S. Government service to “fix” the problem with a “toolbox” containing a notional two trillion dollars.

Take our quiz: Is the market even close to normal anymore?… Credit freeze continues to thaw… Mayer and Denning on what companies need to rebound… Home prices fall again, consumer confidence crashes, but market rallies? … Eric Fry on when this global financial trauma will come to an end… Plus, want a DVD copy of I.O.U.S.A.? Get the details below…

Brazilian stocks have been pummeled in October’s global market rout. But Martin Hutchinson says this has created a great opportunity for investors. South America’s largest economy still has a robust growth outlook and moderate inflation. These six “bargain basement” stocks are now well worth a look.

The folks over at the Oil Drum have done an interesting analysis of oil prices and where they might be headed.