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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (25899)	3/18/2005 11:37:27 AM
From: JakeStraw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Like I said, it's an interesting speculative play... So what's doin' down in Texas?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (25899)	3/18/2005 1:38:59 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

U.S. stocks edge down ahead of S&P rebalance Friday, March 18, 2005 5:08:02 PM reuters.com (Updates to late morning) By Anna Driver NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks nudged lower on Friday as investors were guarded ahead of the Standard & Poor's index re-balancing, while investors kept an eye on crude oil prices. Nasdaq was weighed down by telecoms shares after RadioShack Corp. <RSH.N> warned of slowing cell phone sales. The market is expected to see volatility as the adjustment of the Standard & Poor's indexes coincides with the quarterly expiration of March futures and options contracts -- known as quadruple witching. The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 9.76 points, or 0.09 percent, at 10,616.59 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 2.21 points, or 0.19 percent, at 1,188.00. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was down 6.27 points, or 0.31 percent, at 2,010.15. "It's a really choppy day," Larry Peruzzi, senior equity trader at The Boston Company Asset Management, said. "Everybody is guarded ahead of the S&P re-balance. It's going to be a really big deal in the last half hour of trading. Forty billion worth of stocks will be traded on the close." Meanwhile, stocks were tracking crude oil prices, he said. Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 20 cents to $56.60 a barrel. Oil futures vaulted to an all-time intraday high of $57.60 on Thursday, raising worry that high energy prices will cut into corporate profits. RadioShack fell 9 percent to $25.13 on the New York Stock Exchange after the electronics retailer cut its earnings forecast, citing weak battery and cell phone sales. "Folks recognize Radioshack is an important distribution outlet for Sprint and Verizon so any weakness at Radioshack's wireless business could be construed as a potential negative for these two," Will Power of Robert W. Baird said. Shares of Sprint Corp. <FON.N> were off 1.4 percent at $22.57 and Verizon Communications Inc. <VZ.N> was off 68 cents at $34.98. Shares of Qualcomm Inc. <QCOM.O> fell nearly 2 percent to $36.24. An upgrade of Apple Computer Inc. <AAPL.O> offered some support. Apple rose 1.6 percent to $42.91 after Morgan Stanley raised its rating on the shares to "overweight" from "equal weight." Four types of March futures and options contracts expire or settle on Friday which may stir volatility as investors adjust or exercise their derivative positions. The S&P is making adjustments to its benchmark S&P 500 affiliated indexes to full float in 2005 -- and half of that adjustment will take place after the market closes on Friday. That may increase trading in the stocks involved as fund managers rebalance their portfolios and volume is expected to spike. For example, trade in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. <WMT.N> has already exceeded its 30-day average volume of 8.73 million shares. Wal-Mart, which has a large amount of stock held by insiders including the founding Walton family, traded nearly 10 million shares by late morning.

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (25899)	3/18/2005 2:46:17 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

"presidential roadshow" snips …… take a look at the ongoing 60-stop "presidential roadshow" in which Mr. Bush has "conversations on Social Security" with "ordinary citizens" for the consumption of local and national newscasts. As in the president's "town meeting" campaign appearances last year, the audiences are stacked with prescreened fans; any dissenters who somehow get in are quickly hustled away by security goons. But as The Washington Post reported last weekend, the preparations are even more elaborate than the finished product suggests; the seeming reality of the event is tweaked as elaborately as that of a television reality show. Not only are the panelists for these conversations recruited from administration supporters, but they are rehearsed the night before, with a White House official playing Mr. Bush. One participant told The Post, "We ran through it five times before the president got there." Finalists who vary just slightly from the administration's pitch are banished from the cast at the last minute, "American Idol"-style. USA Today reported this month that the Department of Homeland Security, having failed miserably to secure American ports and air transportation from potential Al Qaeda attacks, has nonetheless shelled out $100,000-plus to hire "a Hollywood liaison": Bobbie Faye Ferguson, an actress whose credits include the movie "The Bermuda Triangle" and guest shots on television schlock like "Designing Women" and "The Dukes of Hazzard." She will "work with moviemakers and scriptwriters" to give us homeland security infotainment - which is to actual homeland security what the movie "Independence Day" is to an actual terrorist attack. The Bush propagandists have been successful at many tasks, from fomenting the canard that Iraqis attacked on 9/11 to deflecting moral outrage from Abu Ghraib and toward indecency as defined by its Federal Communications Commission. But Social Security may be a bridge too far even for propaganda machinery of this heft. Polls find that an ever-increasing majority of the country rejects the idea of letting Wall Street get its hands on its retirement savings. It's against this backdrop that the returning Mr. Lay - completely unrepentant, still purporting on "60 Minutes" that he's an innocent victim of others - could be the Democrats' new best friend. A Texas tycoon who helped create the political career of George W. Bush only to be discarded when scandal struck has re-emerged at just the precise moment when he might do his old buddy the most harm. nytimes.com