- I thought I was out of control playing in multiple fantasy sports leagues. I play in multiple fantasy football, basketball, and baseball leagues. I haven't yet tried Fantasy Fishing. Before each professional fishing tournament, Mr. (Bob) Fowler spends hours on the Internet researching the pro anglers and considering factors such as weather forecasts and the depth of lakes where they're competing. Mr. Fowler, 46, then picks the fishermen he believes will catch the biggest fish in real-life. He enters his picks on a free fantasy-fishing Web site owned by pro fishing organizer FLW Outdoors and competes for prizes based on his predictions. Hmm, I'm not quite ready for that.
- The market? UGH! BLECH! GROSS! Not what we wanted to see after yesterday's big gain. So far, the market has had 3 big (huge) rallies since June. And none of them have stuck. The summer trading range is alive and well. Nobody wants to take risk just yet. I'm still long and markin' time. A little in the red on the high-beta positions established in June.
- Good news afterhours is that Google did really well in their earnings report. Not having the same issues as Yahoo. Web search leader Google Inc. on Thursday posted an industry-leading 110 percent rise in quarterly profits as the company dodged the slowing growth trend that has hurt rivals Yahoo and eBay. But you know, there are a lot of places to go on the web. It'll be interesting to see how all of these companies do going forward. They all do get a lot of eyeballs. Yahoo's problem was slowing revenues vs. their high multiples.
- Most of my flu/cold has gone away. Hoo-ray.
- Microsoft warns of a Powerpoint virus. You know, I've been noticing that whenever I vew a Powerpoint presentation, I get kind of sleepy. Now I know why!
- See the story about a New Zealand cop moonlighting as a prostitute? Bring yer cuffs, officer...
- Holy smokes! MSFT en fuego afterhours! Up 6%, which should be good for cap-weighted ETFs if it can hold until tomorrow. Their profits were down, but raised their estimates for the current fiscal year.
- Joining the market pity party, economic analysts say that even though the Fed may pause, they're not done raising rates. By this time, I hope everyone reading realizes that economists are less reliable than weathermen. But they sure sound like they know, huh?
