The Coo-coo market continues!

Wow, big surprise.

More cracks in the dam? You bet. How about Countrywide's "Mazolla" (guy, please - buy some good suits! Gezus, what's wrong with an Armani or Hickey Freeman? Do you really need to wear that CRAP every time you appear on TV?!) showing up this afternoon on CNBC to basically beg for more liquidity in the credit markets.

Huh? More liquidity? Oh, you mean that little comment you guys made on your conference call about getting rating agencies to "see it your way" didn't go over so well with them? Did you get a kinda nasty phone call this morning? Hmmmm.....

Then there's this quote - apparently, loosening isn't quite what other lenders have in mind:

"We've completely changed the culture from a volume-based culture to a quality-based culture," said David Beck, an executive vice president in capital markets, in a presentation to fixed-income investors."

Gee, that's intelligent. Three years late, but intelligent. Maybe WaMu can save itself from implosion.

Maybe.

That, of course, assumes as well that they're not just blowing smoke.......

But Countrywide wants to go the other way?

You got to be kidding me.

Never mind that they paid out some $250 million in compensation to just two of their top officers in the last year. One quarter of a billion dollars? And their CEO can't afford a decent suit?

Then we have this ditty from The Wall Street Journal:

"Tighter credit and a growing glut of properties are depressing an already weak U.S. housing market, wrecking the industry's hopes for an early rebound. "

"Stricter lending standards will reduce demand for housing by 10% this year from where it would have been had credit remained loose, estimates Thomas Lawler, a housing economist in Vienna, Va. He expects housing prices, as measured by the national S&P/Case-Shiller index, to fall 7% in the fourth quarter of 2007 from the year-earlier level. "

Seven percent eh? If that turns out to be accurate we're heading for a recession with absolute certainty.

And let's not forget - the average market decline in a recession is thirty-five percent.

Any questions?

Our wedges are still present on all three primary indices. My canary is flat on his back, but still weakly chirping. He may get up again and start flying around; I still feel fine, after all - the markets are up, right? Anyone have any O2 laying around? Or smelling salts? Just for the canary, of course. I'd never sniff that crap.

The Dow, despite being up today, was 12:17 on the A/D line. Not all that impressive. The S&P was even less impressive, at 178:305, which is within spitting distance of 1:2.

The dollar continues to be in the crapper. It is now at .7320 .vs. the Euro, which is definitely not good, but in a bit of resurgence it did pop back up a bit on the composite to close at 81.79, with most of the support coming from the Yen.

Just for fun, Cramer just got done pumping his latest "speculative play" - a little-known company called "Ionatron." Of course it immediately popped almost $2 in the aftermarket. That wouldn't mean much except that this is a $5 stock. You gotta wonder - is it really wise to buy something like that in the aftermarket?

Never mind that he just said that Goldman is going to $325. Ooook. We shall see.

We are going to be winding down earnings season soon and important economic data is coming in the week ahead. With some luck the market may return to actually trading on the fundamentals.... although for those of you who are long the market, that might not be what you want.

Have a great weekend!