Markets and EconomyFor the small investor. 5 to 25K

Anybody who tells you they made a killing in the market this week must have shot their butcher. This was both a nothing week and a significant week. The interest rate scare, and it was a scare, seems over. The auction went well, rates dropped .3, the shorts (hedgers) were able to cover and there seems to be agreement that rates are now "right" and that the Fed won't touch interest rates for a year.

Jobless claims look good yet again; the fifth straight week under 400,000. The Jobs Numbers don't come out again for another month. The "scare of the week" (we will have these til the market runs again because all these writers and news shows have to have something to talk about) is oil prices. Some of the biggest "free enterprise/stinking government stay out of markets types" calling for a "look". Translation: something fishy is going on with energy prices. Iraq is supposed to be pumping 2 million bls. per day by year end. Retail exploded with consumers spending like mad in the chains. Productivity gains bode well for profits. These huge gains MUST result in better Jobs numbers, or else. Or else what? The end of capitalism as we know it and I'm not really kidding.

Check my post HERE on the car market. Ford, which is now just a ten dollar stock, may be in serious trouble. GM has a better UAW contract but the question for the past five years still holds: can anybody that has a UAW labor agreement make money? Diamler Chrysler is having trouble too.

Stocks are a pickers market, meaning "do your homework". There are lots of mid cap stocks to buy. Every number other than unemployment looks really good. The effect of the Jobs numbers at the end of August will be huge. Do not assume you know anything, because you don't. Don't even assume the market will explode upward if the unemployment rate drops to 5.5% or drop if the number rises to 6.5%. We KNOW absolutely nothing. Just invest with stops, scale out, use your system. The Jobs Number will tell us if we MAY be emerging from this recession or not. Meanwhile this is a trading range market with a range so tight that an explosion, either up or down, is a sure thing, EVENTUALLY according to technical analysis; and remember technical analysis clearly predicted seven out of the last two recessions. Set stops and be in because you could see a Dow at 10,000 in a few weeks time.