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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 (12096)	10/23/2007 9:00:08 PM
From: blind-geezer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19256

congratulations on your gutsy bet on AMZN poots ...

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (12096)	10/24/2007 8:48:04 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19256

Opening not looking good Momentum should take DOW to tgt. Fed will likely issue another "informal" statement, possibly using home sales numbers as basis. I don't see a Fed cut bumping the mkts up again. Rather, it should cause serious concern. But after the shellacking I took last time, I may be forced to hedge much more defensively. --- Wall Street Headed to Lower Open Wednesday October 24, 8:09 am ET By Madlen Read, AP Business Writer Stocks Head Toward Lower Open After Merrill Lynch Earnings NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks pointed toward a lower open Wednesday as Wall Street showed caution after results from Merrill Lynch & Co. revealed big credit-related losses. The investment bank said it wrote down $7.9 billion in fixed-income instruments called collateralized debt obligations and from defaulting subprime mortgages -- more than the $5 billion writedown it estimated earlier this month. The result was a net loss for the quarter of $2.3 billion, after total revenue plummeted 94 percent. Merrill shares dipped 1.8 percent in pre-market trading. The worse-than-anticipated loss signaled to investors that the financial sector may be in a more dire situation than feared. Wall Street knows most banks and brokerages have had problems this year with the tight credit markets -- as evidenced by U.S. banks' plan to create a fund to buy distressed securities to avoid a fire sale environment -- but it's unclear how deep-seated and long-lasting those troubles are. Meanwhile, the technology sector appeared to be losing momentum from earlier in the week. Amazon.Inc. said late Tuesday its quarterly profit more than quadrupled, but it only beat per-share estimates by a penny. Investors didn't see enough reason to bring the Internet retailer's shares, already at their highest level since 1999, even higher. Amazon shares plunged 9.3 percent in pre-market trading. Dow futures fell 45, or 0.33 percent, to 13,662. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 7.50, or 0.49 percent, to 1,517.90. Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 19.00, or 0.86 percent, to 2,193.00. On Tuesday, stocks finished with a strong gain as the market, though still uncertain about the economy and the credit markets, found solace in better-than-expected earnings from companies including Apple Inc. and American Express Co. In other earnings news Wednesday, Boeing Co. reported a sharp rise in third-quarter profit, but the aerospace company reduced its 2008 revenue forecast. Boeing, one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow, fell 1 percent in pre-market trading. Corning Inc. also disappointed investors by posting fourth-quarter profit and revenue outlooks that fell below analyst estimates. Despite reporting a third-quarter profit rise, Corning tumbled 7 percent in pre-market trading. GlaxoSmithKline PLC said third-quarter profit fell nearly 6 percent on strong competition from generics and declining U.S. sales of its blockbuster diabetes drug. The drugmaker's shares fell 2.5 percent in pre-market trading. Crude oil futures for December delivery fell 21 cents to $85.06 a barrel in pre-opening trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The dollar rose against most other major currencies, except the yen. Gold slipped. Stock markets overseas were mixed. In Asian trading, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.56 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.15 percent. In European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.01 percent, Germany's DAX index slid 0.23 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.06 percent.

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (12096)	10/24/2007 1:51:21 PM
From: Smiling Bob	Respond to of 19256

Turkish planes bomb rebel positions By VOLKAN SARISAKAL, Associated Press Writer 43 minutes ago CIZRE, Turkey - Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships reportedly attacked positions of Kurdish rebels just inside Turkey along the border with Iraq on Wednesday, as Turkey's military stepped up its anti-rebel operations. ADVERTISEMENT Civilian and military leaders discussed the scope and duration of a possible cross-border offensive — a move that Turkey's Western allies are trying to prevent. An AP Television News cameraman saw attack helicopters and several F-16 warplanes loaded with bombs take off from an air base in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. The warplanes and helicopter gunships bombed mountain paths used by rebels to infiltrate from neighboring Iraq, the Anatolia news agency reported. On Sunday, Turkish helicopter gunships penetrated into Iraqi territory and troops have shelled suspected Kurdish rebel positions across the border in Iraq, a government official said Wednesday. U.S.-made Cobra and Super Cobra attack helicopters chased Kurdish rebels three miles into Iraqi territory on Sunday but returned to their bases in Turkey after a rebel ambush killed 12 soldiers near the border, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He also said Turkish artillery units shelled rebel positions as recently as Tuesday night but did not say which areas were targeted. An AP Television News cameraman saw about a dozen transport helicopters fly along Mount Cudi, near the border with Iraq, on Wednesday. He saw at least one warplane fly past Cizre, a town close to the Turkish-Iraqi border. Some 18 miles east of Cizre, a tank battalion conducted military exercises. Soldiers established checkpoints on roads while troops looked for possible land mines. Turkey, which has moved troops to the Iraq border, warned Iraq and Western allies on Tuesday that a large-scale incursion was imminent unless the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad takes action against the rebels. The Turkish government said there would be no cease-fire with the fighters, who want an independent region in Turkey's heavily Kurdish southeast. About 100 red beret-wearing members of the official defense forces of Iraq's Kurdish region were headed Wednesday for a camp near the border city of Dahuk, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad. One of them, who would only identify himself as Capt. Ziad, said his troops had been mobilized from Irbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. "We want to prevent the conflict in Turkey from coming across the border," he said. Turkey's military and civilian leaders face growing demands at home to stage the offensive in northern Iraq, where the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party — known as the PKK — rest, train and get supplies in relative safety before returning to Turkey to conduct attacks. Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, chief of Turkey's military, canceled a visit to Israel planned for the end of this month, private CNN-Turk television reported. A high-level delegation from Iraq was expected to visit Ankara on Thursday. Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, returning late Tuesday from Baghdad, said, "We said that we are expecting them to come with concrete proposals and otherwise the visit will have no meaning." Turkey has long pressed Iraq to capture and extradite rebel leaders and a senior Turkish government official said Iraqi President Jalal Talabani had told Babacan that Iraq "does not exclude extradition" of rebels. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also has ordered the closure of all offices belonging to the PKK in Iraq and said they would not be allowed to operate in Iraqi territory. And the United States on Tuesday issued its most direct demand yet for anti-rebel measures from the government of Iraqi's effectively autonomous Kurdish region. "We need more than words," Babacan said. "We said that preventing the PKK from using the Iraqi soil, an end to logistical support and all PKK activities inside Iraq and closing of its camps are needed. We also said its leaders need to be arrested and extradited to Turkey." Iraq's parliament speaker on Wednesday said his country cannot control the activities of Kurdish rebels but pledged to end any logistic support to the guerrilla group and seek a peaceful solution for the current standoff with Turkey. "When the Iraqi government becomes capable of controlling Baghdad's security, then the others can ask us to control the borders," Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani told reporters in Damascus after talks with his Syrian counterpart, Mahmoud al-Abrash. However, he said, "this doesn't absolve us from ... a national duty not to serve as a headquarters or to support, in any form, any organization that might harm any neighboring country." Turkey's Foreign Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen said his country could impose economic sanctions on northern Iraq to force the Iraqi Kurdish administration to cooperate with Turkey, Anatolia reported. Turkey provides electricity to northern Iraq, and most of the food sold in markets in northern Iraq come from Turkey. Adding to the tension is the alleged capture of eight Turkish soldiers who have been missing since Sunday's ambush. Several newspapers and a pro-Kurdish station based in Denmark showed pictures and footage of eight missing soldiers — allegedly hostages in the hands of separatist rebels. Turkey seems willing to refrain from a major cross-border action until at least early next month, when it is scheduled to host foreign ministers for a meeting about Iraq. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has proposed a meeting among the United States, Iraq and Turkey during the Nov. 2-3 conference in Istanbul. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to go to Washington almost immediately afterward to meet with President Bush. The Turkish leader is likely to reiterate demands that the U.S.-backed government in Iraq take steps to close off supply lines to the PKK and take other measures to reduce the group's effectiveness, possibly including military action. ___ Associated Press writers Yahya Barzanji in Dahuk, Iraq and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed to this report.