Updates...

An interesting end to an interesting week, with the Dow tanking 366 points on Friday. With a handful of earnings disappointments, another series of freakouts related to the sub-prime fallout, this time relating to SIV's, and news this weekend that the G-7 again failed to accomplish anything, the risks remain and the market's weakness is likely to continue in the next week up to the fed meeting. I expect Wall Street to encourage the Fed (read 'more bad news') to cut again and maybe even cut with 'high impact' (50 basis points). The banks need to paint a bleak picture in order to appropriately fuel future growth through liquidity. And as Barry says, the fed has already shown that the are "Wall Street's bitch". Again, at the end of the day, more money will fuel higher asset prices. Barron's noted recently that the ridiculous growth of derivatives and leverage are only serving to multiply the risks. Its a bit of a house of cards, but no one is quite sure how it might fall. The author of the piece Alan Abelson noted that the fed's, "actions were strategically flawed in failing to address the 'moral-hazard dilemma that continues to underpin asset-dependent economies.'" Basically they are reinforcing the problem and not working to alleviate it.

Last week the ratio of gas prices to crude prices fell to close to a six year low. Assuming that oil maintains some strength here which in my opinion is likely given geopolitical risks and continued supply worries, gas prices should rally here. As you may know I continue to favor commodities. I currently have no open positions, I'm hoping some gold, silver, oil or gas stocks sell off with the general market prior to the Fed's upcoming meeting. One stock that I like is already been selling off on some recent drilling results. UXG is still technically weak and I'll look for some improvements before entering.