The Bull and Bear Fight continues......

Durable Goods came in today very poor, down 4.9%. Ex-transportation, orders decreased 1.8%, and ex-defense they were down 5.9%. Looking inside the report, however, it shows that 07/06 numbers really weren't that awful, except in one place - computers - where they were very weak.

GM settled their strike with the UAW. Their stock will be up today, which is going to provide a significant lift to the DOW. It will be interesting to see if this provides any sort of general lift. Never mind that the headline "shifts health care costs to the UAW" is a total load of bull****. Who do you think provides the money for the UAW? Uh, duh.

So basically "bad news = good news" - party like its 1999!

Eeeeehhhhhhh....how'd that end again?

But for today, we trade the tape we're given, right? Yep.

RIMM and Apple are both indicated up over $2 premarket. Yoo hoo - anyone paying attention to a thing called "price/earnings ratio"? Guess not - for now. Careful kids; that saw really is plugged in and getting it too close to your arm can have an undesirable outcome.

In the "stupid people" department we have "The Donald" who last night on CNBC actually said that we "need leadership" (political I assume) to go talk to OPEC and tell them that "oil prices are too high" and "every time the dollar goes down oil goes up."

Uh, Donald. Are you really that stupid or do you just play it on TV? If the former, when is the bankruptcy sale for the next "project"? If the latter, go walk around one of your projects - without a hardhat.

Oh, as for The Fed keeping cutting interest rates? Well, the market sure as hell thinks so. Plosser (one of the Fed Governors, but not a voting member this year) isn't quite so sure.

"Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said last week's interest-rate cut could cause inflation to accelerate and that policy makers must be ready to reverse course if needed."

Ssshhh... don't tell the market!

Oh, and mortgage applications? Down. Why? Because fixed rates went up, just as I said, which drove down activity. So "Ben Dover" rammed the very people that the market claimed he was helping.

"Application volume dipped as interest rates on traditional fixed-rate mortgages rose. The average interest rate for a traditional, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 6.38 percent for the week ending Sept. 21 from 6.29 percent the prior week."

Boy that Rate Cut looks really smart now doesn't it? Save the homeowner eh? Yeah, ok. Make sure you post your address so all those folks who get foreclosed can squat on your land and help themselves to a few beers from your fridge.

Its the least you can do after you screwed 'em like this.

Oh, the Sallie Mae (SLM) buyout went up in smoke today. Wasn't it cute how the Bear Stearns rumor was put on the wire MINUTES BEFORE THE SLM NEWS WAS BROKEN? Gee, no manipulation of the stock market there, was there? Naw, you don't think so.... do you? Isn't it illegal to start false rumors about listed stocks? Gee, with Buffett saying how many times that CDOs and CLOs are "weapons of mass financial destruction", what do you think his odds are of wanting to buy one of the biggest issuers of that crap on the street?

Better question - is the SEC EVER going to arrest someone other than two old people in ****ing Hong Kong for this ****? First the Discount Rate cut front-running, then the dozens of Buffett rumors (homebuilders, etc) and now this? Where are the police when CLEAR front-running and illegal market manipulation is taking place?

**** you pump monkeys and market manipulators. This is what stops are for and I shorted the futures on the rollover from this crap spike.

Thanks for the money you fools.