Change of pace needed...

What might be the change to get the doldrums of this week out of the way.?    Well, once again, we are nearing the reporting season with some of the major financial companies reporting next week, led by GS and then a tech in RIMM on the 25th to possibly get attention on other matters..."earnings".     Once again today, one of the financial companies was under major scrutiny.     This stuff just doesn't seem to get old and the situation is eerily familiar.  We said LEH needs to throw out the kitchen sink before the week started, today they sort of did by sweeping their CFO elsewhere and throwing out the COO.    The only difference this time, is that people "sort of" know what to expect from this situation.     It really doesn't matter what shape this company is in financially, people expect it to be sold in order to survive.     The way the stock price has been acting as of late, the general feeling is that the company will be sold at a much cheaper price.    Whatever the case, just get it over with!   This is just darn right scary considering LEH was considered a powerhouse among the investment banks to so many.      In as little as 3 months apart, can 2 well known investment bank/brokerage firms cease to exist?    Whatever the outcome is, this is shaping up to be one of the most horrifying years for the financial industry that won't be forgotten easily.

We also had to deal with MSFT dropping the acquisition discussion for YHOO that stirring the market.     This means that internet competition is going to remain fierce with all the major players remaining independent.   We think the eventual victor out of this is still going to be GOOG as evidenced by its stock action.    We're not into recapping news,  but we are just pointing out how much we need a change of pace and hope earnings from a financial such as GS and a tech in RIMM will do such.

In terms of commodity area,  it was a bumpy and lumpy ride throughout the day with the $CRX breaking the 50ema and closing at levels not seen since early May.   Yes, we can blame the dollar noise noted beginning of the week.    Crude reversed the early loss and ended up with a slight gain.    In AH,  STLD raised guidance, so we may be able to see a bounce from the steel sector.    The steel sector can definitely use some positive news as technicals show worrisome signs.    Basically,  it'd be nice to have some news like the Agri/Chem had couple of days ago.  

Coal plays are hanging in and there's news that MEE is being upgraded to S&P 500 index in AH.  We tried to get Briefing to point out the earnings revisions from JPM on coals noted here yesterday,  but they've always been a little hard headed when they miss something important. 

We are eager to see how this week closes off tomorrow and/or just get this week out of the way.   Many Shipping stock holders are definitely for the latter after seeing them fall 25-30% in a week or so.    The numbers are ugly this week, -3.7%, -5.7%, -4.6% for the DJIA, NASD, SPX.   Again, we aren't rushing to chase anything significant at this point, we are simply waiting for things to settle down.