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Strategies & Market Trends : Can you beat 50% per month? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (9252)	1/17/2006 10:08:38 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Respond to of 19256

DOW 10921- that 10900 is no support at all- next visit it's kaput right to 10850 with eod finding previous tgt of what I think was 10777

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (9252)	1/17/2006 12:35:44 PM
From: Smiling Bob	Respond to of 19256

Stocks Decline on Weak Bank Earnings Tuesday January 17, 12:19 pm ET By Ellen Simon, AP Business Writer Stocks Move Lower on Falling Japanese Equities, Climbing Oil Prices, Disappointing Bank Earnings NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks fell moderately Tuesday on the heels of a steep drop in Japan's Nikkei stock average, rising oil prices and disappointing bank earnings. U.S. investors sold off equities after Japan's main stock index fell 2.84 percent, its biggest loss in nearly two years. Japanese stocks slid after Tokyo-based Internet company Livedoor Co. was raided Monday evening over suspected securities violations, news that sparked a selloff of other Internet companies and pushed down auto and electronics stocks. Rising oil prices also spooked investors. Crude oil futures rose on concerns about Iran's nuclear program and an attack on an oil platform in Nigeria. A barrel of light crude was quoted at $65.39, up $1.47, in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Disappointing bank earnings also spurred selling. Wells Fargo & Co. missed analysts' expectations, saying a spike in personal bankruptcies in the fourth quarter hurt its results. Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp said its margins are narrowing and its net interest income fell 2 percent from the year-ago period. In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 55.53, or 0.51 percent, to 10,904.34. Broader stock indicators also dropped. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 5.77, or 0.45 percent, to 1,281.84, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 14.00, or 0.6 percent, to 2,303.04. Bonds were flat, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note at 4.36 percent, even the yield late Friday. U.S. markets were closed Monday for the Martin Luther King holiday. The U.S. dollar was up against other major currencies in European trading. Gold prices were mixed. All the major indexes had a strong start to 2006, hitting four-and-a-half year highs in the first two weeks of trading after minutes from the most recent meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers showed the central bank's views on inflation were more moderate. Many investors took the minutes as a sign that the Fed's 18-month streak of short-term interest rate hikes was nearing its end. More recently, trading has been choppy, as investors have reacted strongly to any hint of weak earnings and oil price increases. In company news, US Bancorp, the nation's sixth-largest bank by assets, fell 55 cents to $30.04 after its fourth-quarter results met analysts' expectations. Wells Fargo, the nation's fifth-largest bank, fell 61 cents to $62.64; Fifth Third fell 54 cents to $38.39. Continental Airlines Inc. fell $1.65 to $17.82 after it posted a narrower fourth-quarter loss, despite sharply higher fuel costs. For the full year 2005, Houston-based Continental posted a loss of $68 million, or 97 cents per share, versus a loss of $409 million, or $6.25 per share, a year ago. McDonald's Corp. rose 12 cents to $34.59 after it said same-store sales, or sales at restaurants open at least one year, rose 5 percent in December on stronger sales of breakfast items in the United States and increasing sales abroad. The company also gave a fourth-quarter earnings outlook that is higher than analysts' expectations. Medical device maker Boston Scientific Corp. raised its offer for heart device maker Guidant Corp. to about $27 billion, its latest salvo in the bidding war between it and Johnson & Johnson. The new offer comes after Guidant accepted J&J's $24.2 billion offer Friday, which the Indianapolis company chose over Boston Scientific's previous $25 billion bid. Guidant has said the J&J deal has a better chance of closing sooner. Guidant rose $5.42 to $76.26; Boston Scientific fell $1.30 to $23.90 and J&J fell 10 cents to $61.72. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 4.52, or 0.64 percent, to 703.92. Declining issues led advancers by more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was 701.11 million shares, up from 704.47 million at the same time Friday. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.72 percent, Germany's DAX index was down 0.99 percent, and France's CAC-40 was down 1.01 percent.

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (9252)	1/18/2006 8:44:45 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19256

Futures dipping lower than we've seen in probably a year and overseas markets in freefall mode Message 22006812 Inflation numbers again fail to account for ever-shrinking package and content sizes being sold at the supermarket. You can now buy the same roll of bathroom tissue purchased 10 years ago, but it's called a quadruple roll. Cereal and cracker boxes are almost to picture frame depth Yogurt from 8 to 6 oz the past few years, and prices up 20% vs the larger container. Many more examples of inflation the govt #'s ignoring. Consumer Prices Rise on Energy Cost Surge Wednesday January 18, 8:36 am ET By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer Consumer Prices Rise at Fastest Pace in Five Years in 2005, Reflecting a Surge in Energy Costs WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumer prices rose by the largest amount in five years in 2005, reflecting a surge in energy costs, although other prices remained well behaved. The Labor Department reported that its closely watched Consumer Price Index was up 3.4 percent for the 12 months ending in December, the biggest jump since a similar 3.4 percent rise in 1990, another year when global oil prices were soaring because of Middle East turmoil. But outside of the volatile sectors of food and energy, core inflation posted a 2.2 percent rise for all of 2005, unchanged from the 2004 gain. And in other good news, inflation ended the year on a tame note with overall prices dropping by 0.1 percent in December following an even bigger 0.6 percent decline in December. It marked the first back-to-back monthly declines in consumer prices since late 2003. The 3.4 percent increase in consumer prices for the 12 months ending in December was up slightly from a 3.3 percent rise in 2004. It was the biggest annual gain since a similar 3.4 percent price rise in 2000, the final full year for the country's 10-year economic expansion, the longest in U.S. history. Both 2004 and 2005 were heavily influenced by soaring energy prices, which jumped by 17.1 percent last year and were up 16.6 percent in 2003. Both years posted the biggest increases in energy costs since 1990, a year when Iraq's invasion of Kuwait sent tremors through global oil markets. However, outside of energy and food, the 2.2 percent rise in core inflation matched the increase in 2004 with both years up from a tiny 1.1 percent increase in 2003, a year when the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to a 45-year low to guard against the remote possibility of deflation, a destabilizing fall in prices. Since June 2004, the Fed has been pushing interest rates gradually higher. It is expected to boost rates for a 14th time at its Jan. 31 meeting, the final session for Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who is stepping down after 18 1/2 years at the central bank. The Fed triggered a huge stock market rally in the first week of the new year when minutes of its December discussions indicated that the central bank was getting close to the end of its credit tightening campaign.