With listed stocks getting knocked around, the New York Stock Exchange is considering extending temporary relief from listing requirements. Once a company is dropped from the exchange, it runs risks ranging from market cap loss to limited liquidity. But NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) CEO Duncan Niederauer was clear that the moves are not permanent. For now, the goal remains to protect companies that are at risk of being delisted. This comes after the S&P 500 fell 38% last year -- its worst performance since 1937.

The two rules that have been relaxed are the maintenance of a share price of at least $1 and a market cap of at least $15 million. The return of both measures was delayed back in April. Currently, 31 companies on the NYSE are at risk, including Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) and Lear Corp (NYSE: LEA).

Some of you may have heard this before if you have been in the stock market for a long time: The cheapest place to find oil is on the floor of the New York Stock exchange!

With the price of oil moving up faster than the price of oil stocks, and the high cost of exploration and developing new sources, I have been surprised that there have not been any mergers or acquisitions by the major oil companies. I would think now would be a good time to add to their proven reserves with far less risk than looking for new sources.

It also seems to me that the risks associated with exploration and developing new product would be easier to absorb by larger entities.

For the first time in two months, short interest increased on the major exchanges from the May 15 - May 29 period. On the NYSE, the overall number of shorted shares rose 1% to 15.29 billion; Nasdaq short interest rose 3.6% to 6.6 billion shares.

The NYSE short-interest ratio reached 2.7, while the Nasdaq's ratio hit 3.1. The short-interest ratio can be loosely defined as the number of days, at the average daily trading volume, it would take to buy back all shares currently sold short.

This potentially indicates a turning tide toward bearishness after a March-May period that was painful for the short sellers and others maintaining a bearish disposition. With the S&P 500 Index moving back to challenge the 950 area, the bears may becoming a bit more brave. Are we range-bound, do we have further to run, or are we setting up for another correction phase? Share your thoughts in the comments field.

Beth works for The Options News Network (www.ONN.tv), which provides daily stock and options commentary. The above comments are not intended as trading advice.

Let's go back in time and imagine ourselves standing near a buttonwood tree at 68 Wall Street on May 17, 1792. We watch as 24 stock brokers sign the Buttonwood Agreement under that tree and the New York Stock Exchange is born. The brokers call their group the New York Stock Exchange. Their first president is Anthony Stockholm.

Flash forward a few years to 1817, when the exchange rented a room at 40 Wall Street. When that building was destroyed by fire, the exchange moved into temporary headquarters and then moved to a permanent location at 10-12 Broad Street.

Alcoa Inc. (AA) must have drawn the short straw to be the economic canary in the coal mine decades ago, but for many investors the aluminum maker's earnings are seen as a harbinger of things to come. Judging from Wall Street estimates, expectations are so low, they are almost laughable.

Analysts expect the Dow component to lose 56 cents per share on revenue of $4.08 billion compared with $303 million, or 37 cents, a year earlier on revenue of $7.38 billion, according to estimates by Thomson Reuters. The Pittsburgh-based company reported its first loss in six years in January. Its shares are down about 30 percent this year, even with the recent surge in the stock market.

For the past few weeks, investors have "partied like its 1999" as in the heady days of the tech bubble and not the song by Prince.

They have taken a "What me worry?" attitude that would make Alfred E. Neuman, the fictional mascot of "Mad" magazine proud, sending the major indexes soaring after data showed some small signs of improvement, even though the economy lost 663,000 jobs in March.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 closed above the 20-day moving average at 745.10 for the first time since Feb. 9. And it closed above the resistance line drawn from the November low at 741.02 for the first time since Feb. 13.

Volume for each of the days of higher prices increased to more than 1.8 billion shares on the NYSE, and that is a higher-than-average volume for any month this year (1.6 billion average). But volume has been picking up since the breakdown on Feb. 27 at S&P 740 when more than 2 billion shares traded.

With a reflex rally now underway, the question is: "How far can it go?"

The New York Stock Exchange has decided to temporarily suspend (subscription required) a rule requiring that companies be kicked off the exchange when their shares fall below $1 for 30 consecutive days. With the stock market in free fall, many once proud companies have seen their shares dive into that bargain basement, and the NYSE has decided it doesn't want to add fuel to the fire by sending them off to Casino Pink Sheets.

The exchange also said that it would maintain its relaxed minimum market cap standard of $15 million -- down from the usual $25 million. Both new policies will be in effect until June 30th, unless they are renewed.

With turmoil in virtually every equity market, caused by the uncertainty of the world's economies, there was a rush for the exits Tuesday. But negative breadth of 14-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange -- with just 1.6 billion shares traded -- is usually not the mark of a breakdown but of an emotional selling climax.

Yesterday, the Dow's close came within just 0.31 of the index's lowest close made on Nov. 20 at 7,552.29, with decliners on that day ahead by 15-to-1. Curiously, on that day the Nasdaq recorded breadth of 6-to-1 compared to a negative 5-to-1 yesterday.

On Thursday, stocks opened sharply lower, with the financial sector caught in a wave of selling. And the selling accelerated during the afternoon as it began to envelope the entire market, driving into the heart of the major support zone of the S&P 500 at 800 to 820.

With one hour left in the session, the broader index was at 810 and falling rapidly. It seemed inevitable that the day would end with a major breakdown and a rush to the November low at 752.

But a story from Reuters that the Obama administration is working on a plan to subsidize mortgage payments and stem foreclosures -- and thus, stop bank write-downs -- turned the tide.

Remember Wall Street analysts? Those are the people who go on tout TV and tell you to buy stocks regardless of what is happening to stock prices. The reason you should ignore them is that they get paid to make you buy stocks which generates commissions for their employer. If they issue 'sell' recommendations, they will scare people away from the market. And then there won't be any commissions to pay them.

This comes to mind courtesy of some fresh statistics on analysts' rate of issuing buy recommendations as stocks have plummeted in the last year. When stocks hit their peak in 2007, analysts put buy or hold calls on stocks 95% of the time. And last month, history's worst January, analysts urged you to sell a mere 5.9% of stocks. In 2008, as the market lost almost 40%, sells never outweighed buys or holds.

If you still hold stocks, should you use the recent plunge to buy? Should you hold? or Should you just get out of stocks altogether? The answer depends on how soon you need your money and your outlook for stock prices. The first question is easier to answer than the second one -- which is virtually impossible to get right. As I posted last October, if you need your money in the next six years, it probably makes sense to sell.

How bad was January 2009? After falling 38.5% in 2009, the S&P 500 lost another 8.6% of its value last month. And the January barometer effect -- the idea that as goes January, so goes the year -- has a pretty good track record. In 60 of the last 80 years, the S&P 500's performance in January has reflected the index's annual result. For example, in January 2008, the S&P 500 fell 6%. And this January was the worst ever for the market. So maybe 2009 will be even worse than 2008.

Remember when we were up in arms over the $700 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of the banking industry?

Those were the days. With the government now mulling the establishment of an "aggregator bank" to buy all the bad assets of all the banks, former International Monetary Fund chief economist Simon Johnson says that the cost of the bailout could be $4 trillion by the time this is done.

Four trillion dollars is a lot of lettuce. To help put it in perspective consider this. As of July of 2008, the CIA estimated the US population at 303,824,640. If the total cost of the bailout comes to $4 trillion, that will work out to a bill of $13,165.49 for every man, woman, child and incarcerated felon in America.

What does it all mean? I'm not really sure. But given that you (more precisely, your great-great-great-great grandchildren) are cutting a check for more than $13,000 to the financial industry, don't you think that we are perhaps entitled to a higher level of customer service? Could they upgrade the quality of the lollipops, perhaps?

U.S. stocks are poised to open lower as investors were spooked by bearish economic data from the U.K. that showed the economy there is in its worst shape since 1980 when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. Concerns continue to linger about the U.S. economy and the potential nationalization of banks.

Markets may be bolstered by the in-line earnings report from General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE). Chief Executive Jeff Immelt reaffirmed the company's commitment to a "AAA" rating and its dividend. Investors were skeptical that either would be maintained. The conglomerate's results overall were poor.

Profit from continuing operations fell 43% to $3.87 billion, or 36 cents per share. Revenue fell 4.8% to $46.2 billion. Bloomberg News notes that GE shares traded at their lowest level since 1996 as investors worried about the impact of the economic slowdown on the company, in particular GE Finance.

Other stocks that may move include Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), which reported better-than-expected earnings allaying concerns that decliniing advertising spendnig would hurt the world's largest search engine. Whether the company will continue to weather the storm well remains to be seen. Google has been cutting costs as well, recently eliminating some recruiter postions and closing offices.

The litany of job cut announcements continue. Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) plans to cut 1,100 over the next two years. after reporting worse-than-expected earnings. Playboy Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: PLA) is firing an unspecified number of workers to cut costs. There is no word if this move includes founder Hugh Hefner's former girlfriends from "The Girls Next Door." Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) reported disappointing results after taking a big writedown for layoffs.

This week's rough week is not going to get any easier.

According to the AP, billionaire investor Warren Buffett told NBC that the U.S. is engaged in an "economic Pearl Harbor.".

Buffett also said that it never paid to bet against the against America. So, what did he mean?

Probably that Pearl Harbor was a catastrophe. But, it ushered in a period of four years of war. The US prevailed, but the cost was tremendous and there were no easy fixes. Pain and sacrifice were the currency for bringing the country back to a semblance of what it had been before the conflict began.

Buffett has made the comment before that the deleveraging of the broad credit markets would be a lengthy process and that part of the economy might struggle to survive in the process. He says he never believed that derivatives were safe and that banks that relied on them for earnings would eventually be faced with the balance sheet fiasco that has visited US financial firms over the last years.

Buffett had his own bad year in 2008. The return on his investments was not what his shareholders and the public have been accustomed to expecting. His comments about Pearl Harbor may also be a signal that he thinks even his own brilliance will be undercut. The breaking apart of the credit system may just be that bad.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.