- I think I should to be recording The View! Of course, one can just watch it on YouTube.... The building war of words between "The View" co-hosts Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck exploded Wednesday into a heated on-air exchange when O'Donnell charged her younger co-host with failing to defend her against conservative critics — and Hasselbeck let loose. Some *might* pay money to see Hasselbeck let loose. Ya think?
- Speaking letting loose, what happened to the market? Lets ask our friends at Yahoo Finance: The indices are trading near session lows midday as renewed concerns of the Fed not easing in the near futures feed into the bears' argument that stocks are overbought at current levels. One minute, new evidence to suggest the housing market may have bottomed and that business spending trends are improving is comforting. The next, such improvements easing concerns about the pace of economic growth, as reflected by this morning's sell-off in Treasuries, also remind investors that the Fed is hardly garnering the "incoming" data that will likely result in an interest rate cut anytime soon.
- There are some interesting cross-currents in the market going forward. The economy is growing at below trend. Barney Frank (D) railed on Fed Dude Bernanke recently about this. The economy is at full employment. 4.something% unemployment, 1.8% unemployment for college grads with employers offering plasma TVs and other perks trying to recruit folks. Mergers and acquisitions, stock buybacks, etc; aren't these the things we see near market tops? (See Dr. Jeff's opinion on buybacks...). We've seen some incredible market volatility without the market making much progress; is that another topping sign? Sell in May and go away in play (see Barry Ritholtz for more on that). Oh, and the Wall Street Journal cover yesterday touting that we have to own stocks for the next 10 years because of the growth to come. Ouch, did we need THAT?
- I remain careful in my holdings. Nothing much has changed recently for me. Remaining in low beta holdings, some QID, and a growing cash position. Very few mo-mo names right now, but the ones I do have are bucking the sell-off this morning so I'm holding on. Not adding any new ones here.
- I do plan on refacing the blog in the days or week ahead. I've prototyped it over at The Learning Curve, Too. Just for a change, and a "clean" three-column layout. One fun thing is the use of Twitter at the prototyped site.
- Does that new pill that ends periods also end the mood swings?
- Iran: 3-8 years from nuclear weapons. (Israel: 2-7 years from attacking Iran).
- Yes, instead of posting the YouTube vid, I'm just including a picture of Elisabeth Hasselbeck (nude, naked, cheerleader, costume, lingerie, smoking, pregnant, upskirt, topless, spanking).
