Economics Update

In a stunning grasp of the obvious, the Fedederal Reserve is now saying that the economic downturn might continue into next year....Well duh!!!

In another example of supposed experts who are late to the glaringly obvious, the hedge fund whiz kids have discovered that they can lose money too. It's still better than the market as a whole, but I expect that to change as their complex high yield instruments start behaving like the crap that they are.

In energy and currency, the news is neutral with oil and retail gasoline flat, though the dollar is down a bit.

Weekly mortgage application volume is up 7.5%, but I would go with monthly numbers which have less noise in them.