I'm still disgusted by the leak of the Bernanke comment in April or so. She might have gained a scoop, but she squandered a potentially rich opportunity for cultivating an important relationship with candid speak from a pretty powerful person. I'm not defending Bernanke's lack of discretion, but the entire thing was a turnoff.

Huh?????
I just don't get it!
Why is it that MSM folks get all excited when "earnings" beat Wall Street estimates by a penny or more (in this case 4 cents) while at the same time top and bottom line growth is non-existent. So big deal, INTC beat lowered expectations...my 7 yo math wiz can figure out that game.

Its called D-I-S-T-R-I-B-U-T-I-O-N

IBM is behaving as expected too.

Another chance to get that DOW over 12000 in the a.m...

Watching tout TV ticks me off to much - I don't watch any more; bye, bye Maria; ROBTV daily highlights give much better coverage even of Wall St. thinking! - Thanks, Bill, for moving from mental junk food to all-organic!

Tradesman hit the nail on the head. Problem for Wall Street is that the 30,40 and 50-something crowd that bought their crap in 2000-1 aren't buying it this time. Boo hoo, the sharks will have to feed on each other since tout tv has proven to be nothing more than a bad info-mercial

Like you say, watch the tape. Price and volume are all that matters once we know the fundamentals that we are dealing with. I just ignore the talking heads altogether. What a waste of time.

Pulled up my safety stop the last few trading sessions and was stopped out today. Thanks to Bill's advice, I bought INTC and wrote puts under 18. Over 20% gain in past three months. A nice annualized return. I'll wait until it dips near 18 and play it again.

Thanks again, Bill.

ToddL

i haven't watched cnbc in years and maria is one of the reasons -- i mean, she's like someone's hand puppet. i saw her once on charlie rose (another talking head who wrongly thinks he is as smart as the people he's talking to) trying to talk about the markets and monetary policy -- it was hilarious, or pathetic -- she can't form a complete sentence. maybe she has a brain, but it sure doesn't show when she's on camera. (of course, it's even more pathetic to hear guys call in with questions for her guests and begin by saying stuff like, 'hey, maria, you look really great today.' but i can't blame her for that.) LESSON: there is absolutely nothing to be gained by listening to the fools on that network blathering on all day long.

OT because I am up WAY too early again, the market had a half-hearted attempt to sell off. Buy the dippers still rule here. They will until there is PROOF the consumer has quit spending. Not a day before. Well the data already shows he has quit spending on autos and houses and big ticket items. How many Coach purses and lunches at PF Changs are we buying for chrissakes in order to see those ICSC -UBS numbers?

MBA purchase applications DOWN. Rates up. So that little sentiment blip, which also occurred at this point in the 1990 freefall, doesn't mean a dang thing. Following 2Q's housing investment decline of 11% you are likely to see 3Q at negative 15% or more. And despite the spin, we aren't making that up with the believed but still yet unseen (can you say "unicorn"?) rise in CAPEX and from ever strong commercial building. So after seeing 1Q GDP of 5.6% and 2Q GDP of 2.6% the numbers are saying 3Q is less than 2% and probably significantly so. It's the rate of change here that alarms me.