- Wild gyrations today as the DOW had an almost 250 point swing–several times. The undertone wasn’t great as decliners beat advancers handily. But in cannot be denied the market had a bid under, especially in the last half hour. Importantly, the market didn’t give back more than half of yesterday’s gain. It closed down 105 Dow points.
- The big news intraday was Microsoft’s abrupt change for the release of their earnings from after the close to the open. This was probably orchestrated to let the 5000 employees know that they were gone.
- Second big news item was John Thain gone from B of A and the $1 million, or so, he spent on his new office. Here is more fodder for the folks sick of Wall Street and its “greed”. Don’t feel sorry this boy, there will be no benefits held for Thain. Now the speculation will swirl around Ken Lewis. Seemingly everyone hates him; he paid $29/sh for Merrill but it was stock that is now under $6/sh and has a dividend of four cents a year and his old BAC employees are getting fired en masse.
- After the close Google blew away the numbers and is trading a bit higher. But their guidance has yet to be released.
- The Educations stocks, highlighted below had a very good day but may be a little toppy.
- This is exhausting, I know. Which way to go here? How the hell do we make money without extraordinary risk is baffling. I am trying to pick selective spots and dart in and out. Got lucky on both PALM and State Street, STT. There is a growing crescendo that treasuries are richly priced so I bought TBT, a reverse treasury ETF.
Last night’s poker game was a great success. Won $11, a better than 50% return on my buy-in! Perhaps I should skip the market and hit Vegas…..nah. Have a terrific, teriific evening!
