Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: stan_hughes who wrote (341961)	8/25/2007 1:25:08 PM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

nice!

To: stan_hughes who wrote (341961)	8/26/2007 8:55:31 AM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

What's Next Everyone wants to read the Fed's mind, and next week they'll have plenty of chances. A speech by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday about "Housing, Housing Finance and Monetary Policy" will likely get picked apart for clues about the central bank's outlook, as will the minutes from the Aug. 7 Fed policy meeting, scheduled for release on Tuesday. Investors also await any more news out of the credit markets -- where some hope conditions have eased a little. Many analysts think the Fed will cut the federal-funds-rate target at its next scheduled meeting on Sept. 18, but they also think a cut any sooner than that looks very unlikely. "The discount-rate cut was a good move -- it bought them some time," says Brandon Thomas of Envestnet Asset Management. "They will have to do something at the next meeting, but I don't see them doing anything prior to the meeting." Art Hogan, of Jefferies & Co., doesn't even think the Sept. 18 cut is a definite, but thinks the market has "baked it in -- if that doesn't happen, we could be set up for a bit of disappointment." Economic data next week will be read mostly in terms of whether it boosts the likelihood of a cut. "We'd have to see more deterioration in the general economy," says Mr. Hogan. If data exceed expectations, they could raise inflationary fears, says Charles Rotblut of Zacks Investment Research, but weakness could raise credit-market concerns. "There's going to be a lot of guessing about what the Fed will do," he says. On the calendar are fresh data on home resales -- the biggest part of the housing market -- due Monday, and a Commerce Department measure of core consumer inflation -- a Fed favorite -- due Friday. Meanwhile, one nervous eye will be kept on the credit markets. Says Jack Ablin, of Harris Private Bank: "No news is good news on that front." Mr. Hogan says the reaction to bad news could be "more muted" next week, in part because the credit market showed signs of improvement this week. "The process seems to be starting to work, and we're seeing money being lent," he says. Trading could be light ahead of the Labor Day holiday, says Mr. Rotblut, but volatile and potentially ugly -- the Stock Trader's Almanac says the end of August has been "murderous" in six of the past ten years. In those down years, the Dow's average loss has been 2.6% in the last five days of the month. The Nasdaq has lost, on average, 2.1%.