- Whenever I come back from a trip, I feel a bit disoriented back in the office. I head to a morning status meeting, and even though I was here on Thursday of last week, I just have no immediate recall of what the team was working on. Sure enough, after a few minutes of questions, it's amazing how the brain starts connecting the dots. But initially... geez.
- I think overall, that's a good thing. Maybe it's a sign that the trip was a success. Totally took the mind off the day-to-day grind.
- But, speaking of being disoriented after the weekend, what happened on Wall Street today? Sure, it's the week after options. According to the book, that's generally a bit weak after a strong options expiration week. The RSI(2) on the SP500 is *already* back under 30. Holy smokes.
- But lets go to the tried and true... Yahoo Finance! Financials Pummel Wall Street. Title says it all. And it's the same ol' same ol' news that we already know about, but the writers have to come up with something to explain the market behavior. So it's Freddie and Fannie today.
Wall Street retreated Monday after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell to their lowest levels in nearly 20 years on concerns that the government might need to bail out the mortgage financiers. Weakness in the overall financial sector sent the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 175 points.
Investors were again uneasy about the health of financial companies after media reports of further problems in the sector. Barron's said the U.S. Treasury might have to bail out government-chartered Fannie and Freddie, which, the weekly noted, would likely wipe out shareholders' equity in the companies.
- The words "wipe out shareholders equity" never gives investors warm fuzzies.
- I remain 100% long. No new signals from the Black Box Jr. or Long-Short models. Looking at the calendar, no major catalysts until end-of-month dollar-cost averaging late next week. Plus, this is the last couple weeks of summer. Low volume? Whippy? Prolly...