I love CNBC. As Bill says, it's nice background noise, and he's right: you can pick upon what the sell-side happens to be pushing at the moment if you listen dispassionately. Joe Granville used to suggest muting the volume and taping a newspaper over the top half and just watching the ticker. Alas, since they've dumbed-down the ticker, even that's no longer useful. You could catch Richard Ney's "big blocks" that way -- and believe me, what he saw was real!

I miss Murphy and Bollinger, though. And Bill Griffeth playing the dutiful student of TA.

Always had a crush on Leibe Geft, but now I'm getting TOO off topic...

[blushing] I gave some thought to this, and can't recall ever getting a good, useful investment idea from CNBC. Lots of market data, often dressed up in hyperbole, and entertainment aplenty, for sure. And who can get tired of watching Maria Bartiromo (preferably with the sound turned off)?

But the procession of analysts pushing their stock-of-the-day makes me wonder if anybody has done a rigorous study of how individually-named issues have done in the 1, 3, and 6 months following their "buy" recommendations. I'll bet the old dart board would have a better performance.

I think tomorrow is the day Russia starts taking
Rubles for their oil and nat gas...isn't it?

hmmm

Tomorrow is.....06/06/06

Coincidence? hehe

One of the more sensible comments I have seen on Fed comments (meaning of course that I agree)-

David Merkel
6/5/2006 4:11 PM EDT
"The markets took a hit after Bernanke's hawkish comments, leading to program trading curbs kicking in sometime around 3:50PM, after which, the market stabilized. The hawkish aspects of his comments have been adequately covered. I would only add that he did talk about policy lags, and talked about maximum sustainable growth, both of which can be interpreted in a dovish manner.

I would also note that regardless of what the FOMC actually does on June 29th, Bernanke HAS TO SOUND LIKE A HAWK NOW. There is NO CHOICE in the matter, because he is trying to constrain inflation expectations. This is an ordinary way for the Fed Chairman to sound near the end of the cycle when nothing HAS BLOWN UP.

I am still holding onto the idea that the FOMC does not move at the next meeting. That position is getting ."

NOTHING HAS BLOWN UP... YET. Of course sounding hawkish and risking an asset price implosion by aggressively raising rates are distinctly different acts. At this rate a lot can happen by 6/29. Today's speech seems consistant with passing along word to Kudlow and friends that they were willing to 'shock' the market with a 1/2 point hike.

On the gold debate- I further added to gold (GLD, ABX, GG) exposure today. Agree with Bill, g034 and UBS... there is value in those miners. If other commodity related equities come under pressure that could funnel an unusually large amount into the ONE with that is not perceived as cyclical (at least in relation to the biz cycle). I continue to believe that before the end of this cycle- like 30's and 70's gold becomes a place (globally) to turn when confidence declines in stocks, bonds, real estate, paper currency... looking around it would appear all these are looking vulnerable.

Seasonally the period of June-Sept is difficult for U.S. stocks. This based on annual data of DJIA since 1990; also true during mid term election years since early 1900s.

Good luck to all-

I may be willing and able to put up with shilling and over the top reportage, even the same commercial 5000 times, but sorry, the inane and constant sound effects are way too annoying.

Sometimes I keep it muted in a small box on one of my screens, but I've mostly taken to ignoring the channel.

Novalawyer has it spot on with his advice to watch Maria with the sound off -- talk about a voice that shatters glass! (apologies to Rex Harrison...)

Stockman is right as well: gold's about the only safe haven around when the global poker game of fiat money reaches the final hand.

I try and catch the waves, and think there ought to be another leg down to scare out the weak-of-heart.

There I go again, telling the market what to do, instead of letting the market tell ME what to do...

OT: Asia picking up where US left off...

12:53AM ET
^SSEC Shanghai Composite DOWN 0.721 (0.04%)
^HSI Hang Seng DOWN 154.43 (0.96%)
^BSESN BSE 30 DOWN 227.97 (2.23%)
^TWII Taiwan Weighted DOWN 25.50 (0.38%)
^N225 Nikkei 225 DOWN 294.19 (1.88%)
^STI Straits Times DOWN 31.36 (1.30%)
^JKSE Jakarta Composite DOWN 38.398 (2.85%)
^NZ50 NZSE 50 3,597.366 DOWN 41.783 (1.15%)
^KLSE KLSE Composite DOWN 5.81 (0.62%)
^KS11 Seoul Composite DOWN 7.42 (0.57%)
^AORD All Ordinaries DOWN 72.200 (1.42%)

ALOHA !!

DollarBill ...
Russia starts trading their Ruble oil bourse on Thursday, 06-08-06.

I do not get TV where I live since so few people live here the cable companies do not invest in low density. I also get no cell phone service or car radio signal. Had satellite but the service was so poor we gave it up ...

We do get to see TV when we go on trips to Honolulu or Hilo or Kona and stay in hotels and I do watch CNBC for a few minutes and every time I turn it on it is the same old flavor ... vanilla! Like reruns of "I Love Lucy"! You got your experts ... your stock picks ... your disaster du jour ... your financial vixen ... chatter about golfing and vacations ... a gazillion commercials selling ... selling ... selling and the ticker tape at the bottom! Since I am so out of touch out here I find it fascinating to see the old ticker tape go by and once in awhile I see some of the old HOT tech stocks go by back in the fiber optic days and George Gilder and Mary Meeker. I was in on the Avenex IPO and I sometimes see AVNX ticker symbol go by now and it's not at the old price of $180 a share its down in the $2-$3 range! Just amazing ... I wonder what good old George Gilder does now???

stockman-

I noticed my name was conspicuous by its absence! ;) I'll reenter when my chart-read tells me it's okay to do so. We've had a couple of bounces off the 630 area overnight so who knows, maybe it'll be today? :) Like I said, it's a trade (with a trading position).

GG is a name I'm looking for also. The fundamental case for gold is still strong. It's just a matter of picking an entry for miner exposure and adding to gold if need be. Right now it's down a further $9 and sitting at a key level.

I see $USD starting to strengthen so let's see if they are going to try to take commodities down today.

Long:GLD

Aloha to you Kaimu
I stand corrected....drat...the 666 thing worked so well.

As far as you not getting TV....you aren't missing much.
Heck....I don't even have cable anymore....stopped watching it.
I get cable TV when I'm at the gym and....there is nothing
on worth watching....the only thing I enjoy is the History
Channel.....and I can get the programs with NetFlix.
I do enjoy watching Cramer throw chairs around tho lol.

stockman:

Thanks for your post. I wondered if I was the only one who jumped in yesterday with both feet picking up on the same list you mentioned plus adding to TGB and finally braving the waters buying TIE … Just couldn't help it ;)

Aaaaack! Now I have C. Note trading against me! I'm turning out to be a real "contrarian" on this board. Hmm. Better check my charts.....

MarkM:

Not really. Remember, that last 1/8th to the bottom is sometimes the costliest. Anyway, now I can plant the rest of the tomatoes and peppers and wait for your dip ;)

C.Note-

TIE- since the 'Simmons indicator' last tripped 5/19 the stock has acted well. In the past, the 20 dma has held well once crossed following the Simmons buy report, closed there yesterday. As I draw my short term trend line it is on that line at yesterday's close. So my .02 is that this is a good entry at what should be good short term support, however if that support fails a stop could be set close.

I am long TIE personally since that last Simmons buy report (my largest stock position actually), although I shaved some off into that ramp up. I have been involved in this name off and on for over a year now. That being said the trading account where I am long TIE is substantially hedged with Rydex Arktos (which moves inverse to NDX); at 2% net long I am comfortable with this high beta bet on the long side.

For anyone not sufficiently nimble or unhedged I see all these high beta names as particularly high risk given the rising volatilty in the market.

Things I like about TIE... up to this point all hard sell offs have seen Simmons step in with big purchases- which sets off the next leg up given his past history/timing. When I started trading TIE there were NO analysts ratings shown on MSN or S&P. Now MSN shows 3 analysts have begun coverage- all strong buys. So the gradual increase in coverage and insider buying is providing support to a nice intermediate trend.

long TIE

TIE- looks like break down in RUT and PM hard to fight.

Broken 20 dma; broken st trend. Preserving (what's left!) of gain. Will track for re-entry.

no position

I should have listened to MarkM ;-)

For what it's worth TraderMike has a posting on trying to short TIE and derides NYSE market specialists as frustrating attempts to short.

Looks like MarkM's comments about moving down to next support area around 600 may be right on.

MarkM:

I will never stray again ;)

All of you are forgiven. It used to be that I just had to save Chief Falling Knives every so often but now I see more of you straying from The One True Path. (Sigh) ;)

But even I bought TIE when it moved down to 35.48 just to keep stockman and C.Note company. I put a really REALLY tight stop under it when I saw the Dow cross 11K because I looked it up in my Stock Market Guru Guide and it told me that that was likely a very bad thing.

MarkM-

Will we have the opportunty to wear DOW 10k hats this year? I need to dig that thing out.

Wondering at what DJIA / gold level the fed starts 'dove talk' again?

Nothing has blown up yet...

Has anyone else noticed how similar Cramer's presentation is to Peewee Herman's Playhouse? In terms of volume, the way things are emphasized, and the speed of delivery they seem very similar to me. I suspect the producers spent some time studying some of the old Playhouse episodes. It is quite smart. I think a lot of the callers are of the same generation of the Playhouse watchers.

stockman-

There's very little they can do at this point I'm afraid. Squirt guns on a brush fire.

They can attack commodities and talk, talk, talk themselves blue in the face. Change some trading rules to scare people. Spin some numbers to fit the Story of the Day. But they are really in a box on rates and the housing market and by extension the economy.

So once everyone figures out that "Dad" doesn't mean what he says, the kids will start coming home late again.

(I see that my stop was hit on TIE! Well, hope you enjoyed my company on that name for , what, TWO HOURS?) :)

Check that XHB (homebuilders) chart! Yes, Ben's really in a box. Wish we had the M3 numbers, but Ronsen's blog indicates liquidity is still expanding: "Federal Reserve Board releases Assets and Liabilities of Commercial Banks
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h8/Current/ that total assets and credits continue to expand rapidly."

Guess I'll be closing out that Jun 109 DIA put this week. Chart I'm using shows 200 dma @ 108.70

Correction: . . . . closing out multiple "puts"