Puppies, Mercury Rx and FUD

We have miserably hot weather today. I did an early a.m. dog run on 1/2 a cup of coffee and no breakfast. But our Emporia hand off went quickly. With the aid of a two portable pens, one large plastic painter's drape ($1 at Big Lots), and inexpensive white towels (also at Big Lots 4-$10), we were able to work very quickly. As you've read here before, these pups have NO immune system. They can be exposed to parvo or other nasty virus's through other dogs' evacuation on the ground you're working on. This provided a quick and worry-free way of cleaning puppies who've barfed, pee'd or pooped on themselves.

The towels can be laundered and sanitized. The $1 painter's drape get tossed. It saves about 3-5 minutes per crate. We had 5 crates--when you are processing pups in 100 degree weather, that extra 15-20 minutes matters. And....if you have more crates....well, you get the picture.

No pics, as I had no camera.

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John Murphy believes the last rally was a bear market bounce. As I write, I see NG has left a couple of comments. They merit reading; please see comments section of the last daily sector sort. Either there will be a war or we are witnessing a blow off top (or a blown up hedge fund). That the financials are getting stung mightily again makes me worry a bit--but you know that I've not been in the worst is past camp. Stan Weinstein said in his book that market tops are violent. If the violence is any indication, then oil/commodities just might fit that.

Sidenote: China raised its bank reserves to curb inflation. You can read about it HERE on Bloomberg.

Mercury Retrograde: Find the markets nutty? Well, Mercury is retrograde, and I did not remind you of it! Here's my post from February. You many not be a student of astrology, nor may you care about it. I remember last Mercury retrograde it was mentioned on CNBC (the first time I had ever heard of such mention) and how many traders watched for that. Knowing what other traders are interested in is a good thing. For the record (and if you are too lazy to go to the post that I marked), this retrograde ends on 06.19.08--so hold onto your hat until then. If you have a general interest in astrology and financial markets, Ray Merriman writes a free, weekly column. You can find it HERE. Though it is general, but it has the big astrological signatures. Like technical analysis, in the retrospect, you can make many things fit--but....

Mercury rules communication and travel. Well with oil reaching all time highs we've certainly seen the travel industry (planes and automobiles) handily thrashed. The communication issues will be false technical signals and misunderstandings. I'm not astrologer, but it is something that I understand fairly well from my archetype studies. Astrology, like the market, is all about psychology and symbolism. Symbolism is how we make sense of things. The people who have mastery of the story--hold alot of power. The BEST salespeople are the BEST storytellers and they understand human psychology. Specifically, they know how to make the best of FUD: fear, uncertainty and doubt.

And never think for a moment that WE are not the intended audience for those stories. I'm reading Reminisces of a Stock Operator. Wow, if that doesn't make you wonder how you could ever invest with a broker and not get skinned nothing will...

I'll complete the Weekly Sector Summary Tomorrow and post it in the usual place.