Trial Balloons

* There are many financial trial balloons up in the air. I don't know if any of them will fly.

* Market ended up. Woo. Put-call ratio falling a bit, but not to drastic overbought levels. I wonder when we'll get our first pullback...?

* We have the Social Security trial balloon, which has probably run out of hot air and crashed and burned somewhere where everyone would rather just forget all about it. I probably should just used the past tense in this one, and say that we had a trial balloon. But...

* Is Hollywood going to make a Fantastic Four sequel, and will Jessica Alba be in it? I haven't seen the first one. I need to Netflix it. Yes, there is a difference between "need" and "want," but Jessica Alba is in it. You be the judge on which word is the right one to use.

* On The Apprentice last night, there were two firings. Brian and Marshawn. Both were well deserved. Brian was relatively clueless. Very weak. He blew it with some very poor time management planning, and missing a meeting with the Star Wars folks. Marshawn just abandoned the team and backed-out of a presentation.

* I wonder if Conservatives avoid casinos that advertise "liberal" slot machines?

* The next trial balloon floating around somewhere is the "lets make the tax cuts permanent" trial balloon. I really don't want to use the past tense here, because we have until the tax cuts expire later in the decade before this balloon could crash and burn. Since this would result in massive tax hikes, this balloon might wreak havoc on the US economy. Oh, I know the liberals will say that this just "restores" the tax rates; but, it is a tax hike from today's levels. That means more cash out of your pockets, deducted from your paychecks, and sent to Uncle Sam for spending on what he deems best.

* I was watching CNBC while home today (Veterans Day, you know), and saw somebody ask whether or not there was going to be a year end rally. Well, of course you know and I know that the market bottomed in October when everybody was bearish. Since then, the market has rallied quite a bit. Despite some less than stellar semiconductoer news from TXN and INTC, the semis have rallied smartly, too. So, isn't the market rally underway? I know the crowd gets the middle of the trend right, so they're probably piling in at this point. More power to them. But to see CNBC talk about it like it's on the horizon is kind of bizarre. We're in a rally, dudes. And check out MSFT. Yeah, CNBC was going to talk about them, too. I missed that segment, though It was in the $24s a few weeks ago...

* Have you tried the sun-dried tomato Wheat Thins yet? I'm undecided on whether or not I like them or not.

* I think most politicians would go to casinos that advertise "loose" slot machines.

* The third trial balloon is the Tax Reform Committee's recommendations on overhauling the tax code. Since this initially has included limiting the home mortgage interest deduction and eliminating property tax deductions, it's like this trial balloon has huge lead weights tied to it. I don't know if it'll ever leave the ground.

* Crossing Wall Street discusses the market action today: Well, heck. November’s turning out to be a pretty good month. Indeed!