INSTANT VIEW: Obama's first post-election press conference

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama on Friday said the United States was facing one of its greatest economic challenges and vowed to confront the crisis head-on as soon as he takes office in January.

KEY POINTS: * At his first news conference since being elected on Tuesday, Obama noted the latest economic data showing significant job losses and an increase in unemployment. * "We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime and we're going to have to act swiftly to resolve it," Obama said. * The news conference in Chicago followed a meeting with his economic advisors.

COMMENTS:

TOM SOWANICK, THE CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT CLEARBROOK

FINANCIAL IN PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY:

"I did not like the fact that it could take 'subsequent weeks' to announce his cabinet and even Treasury secretary. I think he needs to act quickly to boost the confidence of investors. Other than that, he didn't say a lot. The stock market rose in anticipation that he would say something substantive, but we didn't get that."

JOSEPH LAVORGNA, CHIEF U.S. ECONOMIST, DEUTSCHE BANK

SECURITIES, NEW YORK:

"He didn't say anything out of the ordinary. He said unemployment benefits are important, we need some sort of middle class tax relief ... and we have to deal with automakers. So he covered what people thought he would cover. He said what the president could do is establish confidence. He did a good job of leaving himself open, and said we need a stimulus package, which I agree with. He couldn't be any more detailed because it's an evolving situation ... and it depends what the current congress (achieves) in doing a stimulus."

RUDY NARVAS, SENIOR ANALYST, 4CAST LTD, NEW YORK:

"The timeline for these proposals remains uncertain -- as he said you can't have two presidents, and so there is going to be some speculation on how he is going to push this through since the need is immediate. One way of doing it is getting Congress to do something like this, getting Pelosi and Harry Reid to put together a quick stimulus package with the aid of the current White House. It could probably happen quite quickly."

GREG SALVAGGIO, SENIOR CURRENCY TRADER AT TEMPUS CONSULTING

IN WASHINGTON:

"All jokes aside, by calling this press conference he is sending a strong message that he is already on the job. He is showing he will be ready to hit the ground running and that should provide some confidence to markets. But the truth is that this economy is hemorrhaging. The jobs report earlier today was awful, news from General Motors were awful and his comments today won't be able to change that."

MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. equity indexes pared gains. BONDS: Treasury debt prices pared some losses. DOLLAR: U.S. dollar trims losses vs yen and euro.