3:25PM: Looking towards the week ahead, there are a few potential catalysts worth mentioning. On the economic front, the schedule is relatively light as second-tier reports clutter the schedule. Nonetheless, the Consumer Price Index or CPI is scheduled for release Friday, for those investors looking ahead towards inflation. Outside of the economic activity, corporate earnings reports will be the real driver of market direction. With the overwhelming number of reports, catalysts are likely to come from some unexpected sources. Yet reports worth identifying in advance include Apple Computer (AAPL) which is scheduled to report Tuesday, followed by notable reports on Thursday from Nokia (NOK) and Microsoft (MSFT). NYSE Adv/Dec 1206/2000, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1484/1843
3:32PM Rumors and terrorism fears rampant; must be Friday : We are hearing a number of rumors this afternoon, the most prominent of which involves Procter & Gamble (PG), which we're told is selling off due to talk of accounting/off-balance sheet issues; also, we're hearing that Barron's will run a negative article on AMZN this weekend; a similar rumor about an NY Times article in May turned out to be true in that there was an AMZN article, but it wasn't particularly negative. It should be noted that it's Friday afternoon, which seems to offer fertile ground for all sorts of rumors, most of which will prove to be false. There are also several terrorism-related stories going around, though none of the incidents discussed appear to be terrorist-related. |
