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Squawkbox market analysis with Danielle Morellino from Thomson Financial Transcript: Welcome to the Thomson Squawk Box Market Minute. I'm Danielle Morellino. Stocks appear likely to cut short the first multi-day rally of 2008, amid fresh concerns for financial companies, and the possibility that mortgage woes are spreading to auto loans and credit cards. Just before financial companies start reporting earnings, the Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that Merrill Lynch may take a $15 billion dollar fourth quarter writedown related to mortgage investments gone bad versus previous expectations of a $12 billion dollar writedown. Merrill is among several large banks that are looking for an influx of cash from overseas to rescue their balance sheets. And American Express became the second big credit card company to warn of slower consumer spending and an increase in late credit card payments. Capital One reported the same problems earlier this week, after it set aside more than a half-billion dollars to cover future unpaid credit card bills. Also captivating attention is Bank of America's bid for Countrywide for a 38 percent premium above its lowest price this week. See our Thomson Squawk Box On the Radar report for more details. We will be watching regional banks for potential upside, as takeover speculation grows. There's talk that JP Morgan is interest in buying Washington Mutual, and we would not be surprised to see Sun Trust and P.N.C. in the mix. Based on our Thomson Financial Trend Intensity studies, 30 of the 39 sectors we track are in downtrends, with more than half of those trends growing significantly more intense this week. The only uptrends are in defensive gold mining and health care shares. We are now watching the 1387 as the next area major of support level on the S&P 500 index, dating back to March 2007 lows. The small-cap Russell 2000 and the Nasdaq have been the market leaders to the downside in recent weeks. One stock in particular we'll be watching is Research in Motion, as doubts are growing that the company will be able to launch its BlackBerry RIMM's planned launch of the BlackBerry in China. Oil prices came under pressure as well late in the week, with crude trading below 94 dollars a barrel. The possibility of new oil coming on the market from Brazil and economic factors forcing slack demand could pressure the commodity next week. Until next week, I'm Danielle Morellino for Thomson Squawk Box .com.