Was today added concern over the G-20 causing longer-term slower growth? Or was it failing consumer confidence? It started out as the G-20, and then it was added to by the latter. The markets saw significant selling pressure, and the biggest concern now is that Friday's unemployment and non-Farm payrolls data will be even worse than expected.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

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Winners on a Bad Day

Today was a wishy-washy day. We started out strong with overseas trading in stocks, but the G20 debt cut pledge seems unbelievable and is still in the years ahead rather than today. Judges upheld Sarbanes-Oxley, except for one issue, which was an attack against the measure of corporate governance. Financial regulatory reform may have just run into another snag after Senator Robert Byrd, a democrat from West Virgina, died at the age of 92 ahead of a key vote this week. Consumer spending also rose 0.2%, but income rose 0.4%, and that is being taken somewhat cautiously, despite being positive.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,138.52 -5.29 (-0.05%)
S&P 500 1,074.56 -2.20 (-0.20%)
Nasdaq 2,220.65 -2.83 (-0.13%)

Top Analyst Calls

Most people don't realize that world economies spend more that $550 billion dollars on energy subsidies. This is $75 billion more that was originally thought. These data come from the International Energy Agency (IEA)

In 2008, the latest year for these numbers, $557 billion was spent on energy subsidies. The biggest spenders were Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, Iran and China, spending an average of 2.1% of GDP.

In an about face, G20 finance ministers dropped their support for fiscal stimulus. The communique from Saturday's meeting in South Korea stated: "The recent events highlight of sustainable public finances and the need for our countries to put in place credible growth friendly measures to deliver sustainability."

Back in April the G20 group was hep on continuing their stimulus programs. Their statement then called for fiscal support to "be maintained until the recovery is firmly driven by the private sector and becomes more entrenched."

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France imposed tough curbs on bank bonuses. He ruled that brokers and traders defer their bonuses over three years and be paid only on performance.

Later this month, the G20 nations meet in Pittsburgh. Sarkozy wants his proposal for bank bonuses on the agenda. France wants three options debated:

• A maximum ratio of a bank's gross operating income to be earmarked for variable pay.
• A special tax on the financial sector whose revenues could be channeled into national schemes for insuring retail bank deposits.
• A straightforward limit to bonuses in terms of value.

The G 20 countries wrapped up their ground breaking summit with amazing cooperation among members. The tackled a wide range of problems and were able to agree on just about every key issue.

Let's look at some specific policies that the G 20 members agreed upon:

• Regarding the matter of stimulus, they agreed to boost the International Monetary Fund's lending power to around $750 billion.
• They also unveiled a $250 billion expansion of the IMF's reserve currency, referred to as "special drawing rights." This will boost liquidity in the global financial system by expanding member countries' foreign exchange reserves.
• They agreed to selling gold to help poor countries.

European leaders of the Group of 20 took the first step in market regulation. The leaders said that all financial products, including hedge funds must be regulated.

The leaders also said that the resources of the International Monetary Fund must be doubled to $500 billion. British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said that the increased funds should be used to help Eastern European economies.

Members who were polled agreed that "all financial markets, products and participants including hedge funds and other private pools of capital which may pose systemic risk must be subjected to appropriate oversight and regulation."

It's being hailed as the unofficial start of a new financial or economic order, sort of a postmodern Bretton Woods, but if the accomplishments are more modest, but substantive, it will be deemed a success, so says an economist.

With the global financial crisis slow growth everywhere, G-20 summit leaders meeting in Washington on Saturday would be wise to focus on one critical and consequential policy action: fiscal stimulus, so says economist David H. Wang.

Economist: focus on fiscal stimulus

"Forget this trivial fixation on 'Who's leading the summit? Is the United States still on top? Is the meeting differing from a G-8 meeting?' The summit has to focus on getting all nations with the resources to do so to commit to fiscal stimulus," Wang said. "There's also a chance for an agreement on cross-border supervision of banks and leverage regulation, but really, it will take months to work out those complex regulations, so the summit should concentrate on the broad picture, and what show of fiscal force they can make for the business community."

That means detailed, and binding, commitments to spend public dollars to stimulate growth, Wang said. China has led the way, approving a $586 billion stimulus package earlier this month. Germany has committed $62 billion. Now it's up to the United States, the European Union, and emerging market powers to announce their commitments, he said.