Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the risks of an economic downturn are more enhanced, comments which in turn caused stocks and related exchange traded funds (ETFs) to fall on Thursday.

A Philadelphia Federal Reserve survey showed regional manufacturing activity had slowed in January, confirming an overall drop, reports Leslie Wines for Associated Press. The fears that have sent Wall Street plummeting were confirmed as Bernanke testified before Congress, re-iterating that the housing sector would continue to be a dead weight on the economy for much of the year.

If the Federal government is concerned, the outlook isn’t good. In fact, things may get worse before they get better, and we will need to ride it out.

President Bush and Bernanke met and embraced calls for an economic stimulus package to help avert a recession, reports Jeannine Aversa for Associated Press. Such a plan must be implemented quickly and temporarily so that fiscal challenges won’t compound .

There is a lean to "put money into the hands of households and firms that would spend it in the near future," rather than making Bush’s tax cut permanent.

Tags: Federal Reserve, Financial, Real Estate, Sector ETFs