Lighter Fare After a Long Week

I had some stomach bug all last night and it was not fun. Not much sleep so had to take the day off. Feeling much better and ready to post on Friday night.

Market Observations
Another tough week in the markets on the long side. The big bounce came and went a couple of times and today's action was muted on Option Expiration day.

My picks from Sunday night would have done ok, and my #1 pick, BKH, would have been a solid winner if I had picked some up early in the week,and sold mid-day today:

Those are not actual positions, but the Freestockcharts default setting. Oh well, what can you do! Dang BKH.

Anyways, plenty of Greek drama this weekend and Monday should be interesting. TRB had this scary historical note on June Triple Witching days:
June Triple Witching – the Aftermath’s a Bitch

The June stats are so bad, in fact, I ask you to consider this as being something more than just data mining - The week after a June Triple Witching Week has been negative for the Dow Jones Industrials 19 out of the last 19 years.

Yikes.

Until Sunday, that's all the market stuff I want to write about.

Friday Night Entertainment
Starting the show to end the week.

A Little Help
My friend over at The Big Steel Keg cooking site, Boat-n-BBQ, is a real nice guy. Not only does he make the most killer dog treats (Lose a Finger Dog Treats, reviewed previously) but now he is doing a great thing for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). He is part of a nifty fund raising idea where the person's "bail" is set and you have to donate in order to get them out! Pretty cool! I have donated (anonymously, my name will not show up on the list so ha!) and I would ask readers to swing on over to the site:
Boats Bail Money
If you can help, anything is great. If you have gained value by reading this site, step on over and donate a few dollars to a worthy cause. Thanks so much all.

This is So Funny
Caught this video when I was watching Kevin Harvick wins on YouTube. While I don't think the language is that great (a bit rough) it is hilarious to see when Dale Earnhardt Jr. runs out of gas on the final turn at Charlotte and Harvick sweeps up the win this lady is soooo pissed!:

Hee hee.

Funny Pictures
This one is great:

see more After 12

NO BOND HOLDER HAIRCUTS, BLAAAAAA!:

see more This is Photobomb
No worries, it's a soft restructure.

Film Clips
Let's see what's worth seeing.

How about making sure you have seen The Outsiders! Here is the rumble scene:

Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Diane Lane, Emilio Estevez, C Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, just unreal!

How about when Darth Vader comes to the second Death Star? "The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am!". How forgiving is that exactly?:

Classic.

Rock Blogging
Rocking the blogosphere since 2007!

Reader C-T pings me with a request for Train and "Drops of Jupiter" and it is a good one:

Nice.

Reader Gawains (who owes me a RE report, lol!) was looking for a little Head East with "Never Been any Reason":

I have never heard that tune, very cool!

How about some 80's hair band! Here is White Lion and "Wait":


Seems my interest in old Ice-T rap caught fire as the tune "Party People" from the original Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo is now on the Tube:

So classic.

Added:
chessNwine wanted some Richard Marx and what my best chart man wants he gets! How about "Hazard" my one and only favorite from Marx:


I got two left.

"The Boxer" by Simon and Garfunkel is one of my all time favorites:

Very pretty.

Last call!

It is Father's Day this weekend and I do wish all the Dads out there a great day! Father's Day is not a good time for me. My own Dad, who taught me how to fish, how to work on the railroad, how to stay strong when things get bad, how to not let anyone bother you, and how debt is always bad in whatever form, died in 1996 (has it been that long?). I miss him every day. I don't whitewash all his shortcomings, but the good outweighed the bad by far. Anyways, here is my Dad's song, John Denver's "Country Roads" as the pops was pure West Virginia:

Thanks Dad.

Have a good night.

All the Big News is Bad, The Tiny News is OK

If the weather does not improve quickly, my fishing trip may be on hold. The weather report on the local news was so off the mark for today it now calls into question the great Saturday weather forecast. Maybe meteorologists should get a job at the FED.

FED Member Jeffrey Lacker is Honorary Member of Economic Disconnect

Jeff Lacker is my new hero. After I have been repeating the major issue that moral hazard represents when you are dealing with people with NO MORALITY (like Wall Street) we finally get a serious thought on the subject from someone in a position to perhaps do something (however small) about it. Lacker, in a speech in London, was sharp with his critic of Boom Boom Bernanke's alphabet soup of lending booths. From Bloomberg article, key parts:

""The danger is that the effect of the recent credit extension on the incentives of financial-market participants might induce greater risk taking," Lacker said in a speech to the European Economics and Financial Centre in London. That "in turn could give rise to more frequent crises," he said.

The central bank has introduced three programs since December to help counter the credit crisis. Along with the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, the Fed lends Treasuries to dealers in exchange for mortgage and asset-backed debt through the Term Securities Lending Facility. The Term Auction Facility offers cash loans to banks.Lacker indicated skepticism about the value of the programs."It isn't clear what kind of market failure is being addressed" with the TAF, he said. Central bankers should be wary "that they can substitute their own judgment about the fundamental value of financial instruments," he said.

Note that Lacker has dissented on rate cuts in the recent past. Here he hits it exactly. By going ape shit and spreading the FED balance sheet across a bunch of retarded banks, Bernanke has not saved the entire financial system from collapse, he has practically ensured it will be bigger when it does happen. Wall Street simply is not able to reform, and giving them free money from the taxpayers to recapitalize them after losing their asses is not going to help anyone but the bank executives. Thanks Mr. Lacker. I appreciate your comments today.

All the Big News is Bad, The Tiny News is OK

I am not going to try and comment on today's market action. Stocks have long been off the reservation as it relates to to the macro picture. Today could have been more delusion, a short squeeze, a Thursday bored office of brokers decided to buy, whatever. Compare today's headlines and see what you think matters the most.

Big News

AP - Foreclosures hit a record high -- and more coming

Reuters - Oil posts record $6 gain on weak U.S. dollar

CNN Money - Household net worth drops by $1.7 trillion

AP - S&P cuts ratings on MBIA, Ambac

Tiny News

AP - Retailers report May results above expectations

AP - Jobless claims drop unexpectedly but key indicator of unemployment hits four-year high

You decide which news items mean more going forward. Foreclosures hitting a record high, and accelerating in the PRIME LOAN space is pretty bad. Downgraded monolines was supposed to mean the end of the known universe, now just a small headline. Retailers like low cost bulk stores Costco and Walmart had good sales, other stores not so much, but hey focus on the good stuff. And unemployed people ran out of benefit weeks and dropped off the payroll, so that is great news. Exactly.

Shorts got Killed on MBIA and Ambac

You know I love message boards, and today was great fun! The downgrade news on MBI and ABK must have made some shorts cover their positions, and thus the stocks rallied pretty hard. The message boards were awash with calls the "Shorts got their asses handed to them" and the like. I wanted to put up a couple of 1 year charts so you can see that, yes, shorts have gotten killed on these stocks!

So ABK has gone from $89 to $2.60 and MBI has gone from $68 to $6. Yeah I would say shorts have been cleaned out on these two stocks, yes? Maybe the shorts from early this morning got hit, but seriously, anyone long this stock is both wasting their money and ignoring reality.

As always leave music, film, or other entertainment ideas in the comments section for Friday Night.

Have a good night.