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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lucretius who wrote (18632)	9/15/2000 8:21:18 AM
From: AllansAlias	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Round of applause. You have made a fine choice. This is a new watermark in clowndum. Speaking of clowns, I was just perusing a list I maintain of the most popular NDX options. I see that the Nov 4900(!) calls have heavy open interest. There are believers out there. I note as well that there is sustained interest in the Dec 2900 puts, about half the interest as the aforementioned calls, but still surprisingly high.

To: Lucretius who wrote (18632)	9/15/2000 8:36:31 AM
From: UnBelievable	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Good Thing The Cost Of Energy Fell!!! US Aug CPI Energy Prices -2.9%; Food Prices +0.2% US Real Average Weekly Earnings +0.1% In Aug Aug CPI Show Drop For First Time Since 1986 ====================================================== August Consumer Price Index !Surprise: No ! Key Numbers: !Trend: ! Aug July !Low Inflation ! CPI Index: -0.1% +0.2% !Consensus: ! Core Index: +0.2% +0.2% !Overall: ! Energy: -2.9% +0.1% ! +0.2% ! ====================================================== By Joseph Rebello and Phil McCarty Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. consumer prices dropped in August for the first time in more than 14 years amid a slump in energy and transportation prices, solidifying investors' expectations that the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged for the remainder of the year. The Consumer Price Index declined 0.1% in August, marking the first drop since April 1986, the Labor Department said Friday. Falling energy prices accounted for most of the decline, but the index showed prices moderating in most key categories as well. Still, the core index, which excludes food and energy items, rose 0.2% for a fifth consecutive month. The decline in the overall index surprised Wall Street. But it should have little effect on stocks and bonds Friday because investors had their eye on the core index, which rose precisely as expected. The Fed, moreover, has signaled recently that it is willing to test the limits of economic growth so long as inflation remains tame. Wall Street, as a result, has effectively ruled out the possibility of another interest-rate increase this year. The Fed, whose top policymakers next meet on Oct. 3 to decide the course of interest rates, has raised its key federal funds rate to a nine-and-a-half-year high of 6.5% over the last 15 months. But since May it has been reconsidering the need for additional increases. In June, Fed policymakers described the risk of an inflationary outbreak as "remote." Since then they've raised their estimate of how much the U.S. economy is capable of growing without igniting inflation. Individual policymakers' estimates of the maximum growth rate vary from 3.5% to 6%, but even the Fed's most hawkish policymakers no longer see inflation as an immediate threat. The U.S. economy, after all, is expected to slow to a growth rate of less than 3% in the third quarter from 5.2% in the second quarter. Over the last month evidence has grown that the U.S. economy, now in the 10th year of its longest-ever expansion, is slowing at last. Retail sales, for example, grew just 0.2% in August after a 0.8% increase in July. The number of unemployment-benefit claims filed by U.S. workers has been rising steadily, reaching a 21-month high of 324,000 last week. The U.S. producer price index, meanwhile, showed that prices declined nearly across the board in August. The Labor Department said Friday that falling energy and transportation prices, which together account for about 25% of the consumer-price index, accounted for most of the decline in the overall index. Energy prices fell 2.9%, the biggest decline in more than nine years. That included a 6% drop in gasoline prices, also the biggest in nine years. Transportation prices fell 1.1% after a 0.3% decline in July. The restraining effect of energy prices on the overall index, however, is expected to be temporary. Crude-oil prices this month have risen to a 10-year high, and analysts expect that acceleration to boost energy and overall consumer prices for the month. Still, prices moderated in most other categories in August. Housing prices, which account for nearly 40% of the index, grew 0.2% after a 0.4% increase in July. Food prices grew 0.2% after a 0.5% increase in July. Prices of tobacco and smoking products fell 1.6%. But prices of apparel and medical care surged: medical care prices rose 0.4% after a 0.3% increase in July; apparel prices rose 0.2% after a 1% decline in July. In a separate report, the Labor Department said average weekly earnings of U.S. workers, adjusted for inflation, rose 0.1% in August. The gain was caused by a 0.3% increase in average hourly earnings and a 0.1% decline in the CPI for urban wage earners and clerical workers, which was offset by a 0.3% decline in average weekly hours. -By Joseph Rebello and Phil McCarty; 202-862-9279