This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end – Jim Morrison
![[10pt LG econ forecast]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-AZ900_10ptLG_20080206155501.jpg)
Oh boy, it looks like another bad day in the markets!
Retail reports have been coming in less than stellar and we’re down significantly in pre-market trading as the anticipated stimulus package was voted down in the Senate. The jobs numbers weren’t so bad with unemployment still around 335K with 400K considered "recessionary." I said in yesterday’s post "show me the misses" and we got a big one from INX that’s going to hurt the SOX today along with yesterday’s bad guidance from CSCO but, on the whole, beats are outnubering misses 4:1 – what kind of recession is this?
Over in Asia, China is closed for New Year’s but the Nikkei actually gained 1% despite India dropping 3% on the day. The ECB continued to focus on inflation fighting by holding rates steady as at least one Central Banker (Trichet) is a man of his word. The BOE dropped rates down to 5.25%, still miles ahead of us as well as the ECB, who are holding the line at 4%.
DB’s earnings were NOT a disaster and the bank had no more write-downs to give! No one cares but I do as this seems kind of significant to me. UN made less than last year but beat estimates and raised guidance – yet another multinational who’s not seeing a recession and this too is being ignored. French Telecom posted a 52% increase in profits and no one cares about that either, sentiment is an amazing thing…
I spent the morning running virtual portfolio reviews so that’s all I have time for here but let’s look for the open to be the bottom and we’ll call this day a win. We are very covered and hoping to have reason to buy back some callers but hope is not a strategy so let’s all be careful out there!
