What's Happening Today

It was a busy weekend for folks at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve (and our financial reporting team!). After a difficult week in which its shares plunged 50 percent, Citigroup received a bailout from the federal government, which has stepped in to protect the company against $306 billion in troubled assets in exchange for preferred shares in the company.

Today, we'll look to see whether the markets like that news and, in addition, if it rallies on news about president-elect Barack Obama's plan for a $700 billion stimulus bill. So far, the European markets seem to like the news. The DJ Stoxx index is up nearly 4 percent. London's FTSE is up 4.6 percent. In Asia, stocks were more downbeat. The Hang Seng was down 1.6 percent and Japan's Nikkei was closed for a holiday.

At 10 am, we'll be watching the existing home sales data, and look for any surprises.

Obama will hold a press conference today at 12 pm to announce his new economic team, which the Post reports will include Tim Geithner as the new head of the Treasury and Lawrence Summers as an economic advisor.

--Sara Goo