Stocks were little changed on Monday as investors waited to hear the details of the government's latest effort to save the financial system from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Tuesday.
Mr. Obama weighed in on a subject he feels is important; the ability of homeowners to have their mortgage restructured in court.
The President said on Monday that he supported changing the rules to let judges modify first mortgages to prevent home foreclosures, making his comments at a town hall meeting as he campaigned for an $800 billion economic stimulus package being debated by lawmakers.
"If you are like most people, including me, and you've got one house," he said "It turns out that under current law you can't modify that mortgage if you are in bankruptcy. That makes no sense. That is forcing a lot of people into foreclosure. This is a piece of legislation that I strongly support."
Actually, the inability of a homeowner to restructure helps keep borrowing costs down, because banks see fewer risks in the loans when they can't be modified by a bankruptcy judge. Mortgages on second homes, along with commercial mortgages, typically come with higher rates of interest because those loans can be restructured in a bankruptcy proceeding.
At the close of floor trading on the NYSE, the DOW was on 8270.87 after falling 9.72 points (-0.12%) while the S&P finished on 869.89 with a gain of 1.29 points (0.15%). The tech-heavy NASDAQ closed on 1591.56 after falling 0.15 points (-0.01%). Bonds fell ahead of the government's record sale of $67 billion worth of bonds and notes this week. The yield on the 2-year note rose 2.4 basis points to 1.027% while yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose 1.7 basis points to 3.009%, the first time since November it's been above 3%. The dollar was weaker across the board, falling 0.58% to the euro, 0.84% against Australia's currency, 0.86% against the resurgent pound and 0.49% the yen.