Market Observations Week Ending 10/05/07

While we were out...

Auto Sales declining again; Toyota -4%; Ford -39%; GM -4%. Despite 110K Sept & revised Aug +89K Non Farm Jobs, intial claims and unemployment rising to 4.7%.

The "robust" service based economy growing Aug +153K; Sept +143K. 94K of Sept & Aug "gains" were guvmint jobs.

Meanwhile, the durable economy continues to shrink, manufacturing Aug -45K; Sept -18K; Construction Sept -14K.

Demand waning as factory orders fell off a cliff -3.3% vs prior +3.4% helping wholesale inventories to decelerate their build +0.1% vs prior +0.2%

ISM manufacturing and services both confirming a softening with declines 52 vs 52.9 & 54.8 vs 55.8.

The housing debacle continued with Pending Home Sales plunging to new depths -6.5%.

Chevron and International Paper issued third quarter outlook warnings while Alcoa disappointed after sales slipped 3.2%.

The UAW settled with GM and walked on Chrysler...

Monsanto Co., the largest seed producer, fell after its loss widened on lower-than-expected sales of gene-modified seeds.

The remaining feral and domesticated bee population clapped their wings...

Understatement of the day... with tech still leading the surge, Lehman Brothers analysts:

"We remain concerned about excess memory spending, the commoditization of semiconductors, and potential negative impact of a slowdown in worldwide economic growth."

With all this good news to back it...

the stock market indices have soared back to record heights. Last week DJIA

Mon +192; Tue -40; Wen -79; Thu +6; Fri +92 for the week +171, Since 09/15/05 +3457 (2 week gain +248). So far this week 10/08/07 DJIA Mon -22; Tue +121.

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