Not much to report here.....

The market continues to move upward slightly; China was down 8% overnight, but the rest of the markets ignored them. The 10Y bond retreated just a touch (but not in any sort of material amount) with more buybacks and takeovers being the impetus for moves higher. What looked like a modest selloff this morning turned into a modest upward move by the close.

Nothing really interesting from a chart perspective.

In an interesting company-specific note Countrywide Financial announced two new bond offerings for $2.5b - this time being real bond issues with rates over treasuries, and one floating on LIBOR. Hmmm.... didn't they just issue debt for "general corporate purposes"? So now we've had what - over $6b in new debt in the last month? Heh guys, what's up with that? You got a little liquidity problem?

From a purely technical perspective I'm not inclined to re-short the stock until it breaks the DMA lines; shorting something at support levels isn't usually all that wise of a move. I am, however, kicking myself for having closed the short I had open before going on vacation.

Oh well.

On the data side, remember that personal savings rates moved to negative 1.3% (further downward into negative territory) and Factory Orders, posted today, were very weak - only up 0.3%, or less than half the 0.8% increase predicted. Leading the bad news was a huge drop for construction machinery - 31.5%! Heh, how 'ya think Caterpillar likes those nuts? The stock market didn't seem to care, bidding up CAT's shares by 15 cents.

How long before the market starts to pay attention to actual conditions in the economy? Hell, who knows. But let's not take our eyes off the ball - reality is what it is, and sooner or later silly will be replaced by sober. We are merely marking time (and I'm taking money off the longside advance in the S&P) for as long as it continues. I'm a simple guy - I'll take money off whichever side works out best at any given point in time.

One issue I am watching closely is GM. This may be a juicy short in the not-so-distant future. The stock has strong support at the $29 level, but a breach of that should leave the door open for a nice plunge. And being a very liquid issue, its easy to short. Let me emphasize here - NOT YET! The stock has been trading in a channel since early March, and until it breaks that (which I expect it to on the downside) you're playing with a stock that's smack-dab in the middle of its trading range. That's not a good play, and as such its not time - yet - to get involved. But a look at the balance sheet shows a company that is functionally bankrupt right now - eventually the market just might pick up on that one!

Accredited Home (LEND) is getting bought for $400m. You have to wonder if that deal will close or not. Everyone cheered for the 10% premium over closing price Friday - ignoring that its a 72% loss on last year's stock price. Gee, 'ya think?

And getting fat on donuts still isn't making people money. Duh.

More as and if warranted......