OPEd: Finance Corner: Tale of the Tape: All Three Tech Charts Negative

Advances & Declines
NYSE NASDAQ Advances 444 (13%) 634 (20%)
Declines 2,832 (85%) 2,401 (76%)
Unchanged 67 (2%) 109 (3%)
Up Vol* 205 (7%) 156 (9%)
Down Vol* 2,870 (93%) 1,480 (88%)
Unch. Vol* 8 (0%) 46 (3%)
New Hi's 17 41
New Lo's 75 75

Click on the post for the full article in Yahoo Finance. The bleak numbers above give a snapshot of what happened today.

Mr. Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve as you will recall, did lower the rate charged to banks last week---the discount rate. However.....so what. That does not help customers facing higher interest rates on mortgages and credit cards. The market seems to be demanding....yes demanding a lowering of interest rates. And they want it before the next regularly scheduled meeting.

Hesitant leadership can and will have an additional devastating effect on the housing industry. And the folks that were responsible for supervising the lending practices of the sub=prime lenders? You guessed it. The Treasury.

Stay tuned. What will happen tomorrow? Is this a battle of wills between the market and the new Fed Chief? Lets see what the pundits say this week.

Stay tuned. This is the Evansville Observer. I ask a lot of questions. No answers particularly. Still. The questions are occasionally important. Stay tuned.