The Market..

For something that's doing a lot of moving it sure isn't going anywhere.

 

Barely up over the past 2 years.

 

Better than down I guess.

This mess isn't over, but I'm still surprised the market as held up as well as it has, so far.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when the emergency rule that halted naked short sales of certain financial institutions is lifted. I think that happens Aug 12.

 

The strengthening of the dollar is giving some hope. That will (and has) help oil prices which would in turn help consumer spending. But, there is still a ton of mess to clear through.

VA, one of the things I have read is that Bernake is keeping rates artificially low to get past August as there were a ton of mortgage resets supposed to happen in August and those are tied to Prime. So, my guess is we will start to see the Fed move rates up this Fall/Winter to head off inflation (in turn streghtening the dollar more and helping oil prices - theoretically). Is there truth to that?

 

I don't know what Bernanke is thinking, but he's in a tight spot. Oil prices decreasing is helping him alot as it should help decrease inflationary pressures somewhat. He can't raise rates as that may hamper the economic recovery but at the same time leaving rates low doesn't help the inflation situation. I'm thinking, based on the last OFMC meeting, rates will stay the same until at least the beginning of 2009. We'll see. I hope he doesn't raise rates anytime soon because I just opened a 8 month CD and if better rates come along I'm going to be pissed!

 

down 200 up 300 down 200 up 300..........................

 

The Market does seem to be meandering. I'm still down about 10% for last month.