Compensation must be in line with services rendered. What a joke!!

So Spitzer now sets the compensation for American companies? What a joke. Grasso did a great job of running the exchange. Now he gets penalized because the board awarded him what is viewed as excessive comp. Excuse me but the amount of business that Grasso brought to the NYSE should be reviewed. The logic of the NYSE being a not for profit is totally flawed. Spitzer will lose this battle.

The Andor Dilemia

Just when you should be shorting you go long and just when you go long you should be short. After a while, you are blind and can no longer negotiate the markets. That is Andor's problem. They were great investors in a TRENDING MARKET. We are now in a TRADING market. They will continue to get it wrong until they embrace shorter term tools or we go back to a trending market.

That is a sad thing.

Semis rocking this evening

Book to bill rocks to 1.14 from 1.09 in March. This could get the semis moving on Friday. We like AMD and MU. AMD is cutting into INTC's market share. Heard Dan Benton of Andor Cap plead for his life and his investing style on a UBS call. If you believe him, there are going to be chips everywhere. So its makes sense for the semis to rebound here if this economic rebound is for real. Right now it is just a trade not an investment.

Worms and we do not mean tequila

The worm has taken on a new meaning in the web world. Each day www.techweb.com posts great stories that ultimately filter to the big publications. So much for writers driving their ideas with original thought. This a great story to read from today's postings. Stocks like SYMC, MCAF and RSAS are winners in the war on the worm. We would buy these names in any pullback.

2. MOBILE & WIRELESS NEWS OF THE WEEK
Group Warns Of Wireless DoS Attack Vulnerability
A newly discovered vulnerability in the 802.11 standard makes it
relatively easy to launch DoS attacks against hotspot users.
http://update.techweb.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eg8N0GN8eB0G4U0CXMV0AM

Inflation or Deflation?

In the past year, we seem to have gone from a deflationary environment to an inflationary environment. Is this perception reality? Commodity prices have been driven by increased demand for raw materials around the world. China is a big piece of this and a prolonged upturn to their economy could be a nightmare for the Fed to model. At the end of the day, one must remember that inflation is nothing more than too many dollars chasing too few goods. That is the problem right now.

Evening thought on CSCO

Come on John Chambers. You can do better than just buy back shares to help push your earnings higher. That game is old and well known. This is cosmetic and no one cares about this action to drive earnings. Either invest in R&D or buy a company who earnings and revenues are accretive. Do not short Cisco here but also not worth buying. The stock is dead money and Chambers is the boy who tried wolf.

Morning thought

Everyone in the world is calling for a bottom. This usually occurs when no one expects it to appear. The Dow 30 and the Russell 2000 broke back below their 200 day. Everyone is focused on the SP 500 breaking above the 200 day. It to will fail. Other concerns, PPI up strong this a.m. Inflation = too many dollars chasing too few goods. The bear is lose on Wall Street and knocking over the garbage cans. I am out.

Bottoming here?

Had to laugh when the former Oracle of Wall Street now just a gnome proclaimed that the market was the most oversold in twenty years. Gimme a break. Barton you remember 9/11 or July 2002? Not to mention 98, 97, 94,90,89 and the mother of all overold conditions, 1987. Barton Biggs aka "the gnome" was holding too much on the long side and had nothing to lose going on CNBC and telling its viewers that they needed to step in and buy so that he could sell. The fact that CNBC did not challenge this comment is much more pathetic than Barton groveling. Hey Barton, let's see your Morgan Stanley blotter today and in 5 days. I'll lay money that you own less on the long side. Shame on CNBC for producing this type of dribble.