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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (187963)	5/6/2004 11:59:38 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1586027

Why the Tape Keeps Letting Us Down By James J. Cramer RealMoney Columnist 5/6/2004 8:58 AM EDT Here's something you don't hear much anymore: "Liking this tape." It's the "tape" that has us down, has us feeling that the economy is stalled, has us bumming about our money and feeling miserable. Of course, the individual stocks in the tape are acting awfully, so if you own them you blame those particular torturers: Darned Micron (MU:NYSE - commentary - research). Hate Nortel (NT:NYSE - commentary - research). Can't stand Intel (INTC:Nasdaq - commentary - research). What's with Sun (SUNW:Nasdaq - commentary - research)? How much is this King (KG:NYSE - commentary - research) going to cost me? Will Phelps Dodge (PD:NYSE - commentary - research) ever go up again? But it is the tape, after all. It's the tape that makes things awful and we shouldn't forget that. I think we have forgotten in this country how much the market is our "financial psyche." Wednesday, Tyler Mathieson asked me why so many people don't feel rich right now and I almost answered, "The tape." But I didn't want to be too shorthand about my answer. Stocks aren't working. Bonds aren't working. Nothing's working. Now, here's the punch line: Don't blame the companies. But you can blame the Fed a tad for playing Hamlet. Most important, it is Iraq. Iraq has become the economy, stupid. It's all that the traders are really thinking about and only the traders are taking action; everyone else seems frozen. We cannot mount a serious rally without something going well in Iraq. The fact that Iraq is the determinant and not EPS means uncharted waters, which is why, in the end and in truly circular fashion, the tape just keeps letting us down. Get used to it. thestreet.com