TGIF Randomosity (and the Rapture)!

• The Dow down for third week in a row.
• How’d $BKS do? Up about 30% on the takeover news.  The rapture came a day early for the Barnes and Noble shorts.
• The reason du jour for the market swoon?  Consumer demand may be weakening.  No secret, right?  We’re spending more on gasoline, which leaves less to spend at the stores.  And retailers were smacked. 
• The Gap ($GPS) was down over 17%.  They blamed rising sourcing costs (cotton) and the Japan earthquake, and warned that it doesn’t know how it can pass the rising costs to consumers.
• Yesterday, President Obama told Israel that the country had to pull back to the 1967 boundaries.  Netanyahu ruled that out today in his visit with Obama.
• Just a reminder, the Rapture is tomorrow.
  

  Blondie–Rapture
• Did you know that the Investors Intelligence survey, a benchmark measure of bulls vs. bears, shows the least number of bulls since last October.  The Dow was 1500 lower then.  So how does that line up with the fish-are-biting bullishness in the IPO market?
• Florida and Texas compete for “most job friendly state.”  California nowhere to be found…