Well they underestimated the growth of the economy by 5% and inflation was a little lower too. Oops, sorry about that investors – turns out there was an extra $600Bn floating around that the government didn’t notice (or held back to goose the market at a critical juncture if you are one of those conspiracy people).
Carl Icahn is as sick as I am about TWX’s performance and is going to try to take it over in a proxy fight. This should be fun but I think I will sit this out for a while.
Oil inventories will matter a lot today. If there is any build in crude then $55/bbl is in the immediate future. That price will reverse as soon as it snows in NY though.
Microsoft kicked SYMC while they were down by reminding everyone they have security software. They will be giving it away for free for a while so the question for Symantec is “how low can you go.” Microsoft has a great scam going here – write software that is riddled with security leaks and then sell software to fix it. If this catches on plumbers may start installing pipes with holes in them or perhaps surgeons can leave out a few organs and charge you to go back in and fix it…
If the last 2 days worth of news doesn’t jump the market then we may be heading for a great fall.
Google may have oversold a bit yesterday but I am staying away from that one. It still trades at more than double Yahoo’s p/e and YHOO is off 10% in 3 days and heading lower.
SIRI update. There are conflicting rumors over whether CEO Mel will be on Mad Money tonight but it is certain that they just raised rates (this may be a reason for Mel to lay low today). Also, Howard Stern is doing some kind of March on 12/16 (option expiration day) that should generate major press. The FCC is making noise (nobody in the old media could possibly have pulled any favors here) about regulating Satellite and Cable – I guess the Republicans think they are just a few points from being the most unpopular administration in history so they may as well go for it! http://www.howard100channelguide.com/ says it all…
