Cara Community

[7:30am ET] The US bank summary stats 3Q08 compared to 3Q07 (quarter ending Sept 30) make for interesting reading. This report shows that the International Banks are hurting but still making money (although drastically lower and presumably mostly from securities trading) while the smaller commercial lending banks and the savings banks are in dire straits.
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/statistical/stats/2008sep...

[7:15am ET] Yesterday, the US equity market was driven by vehicles. Traders ought not dismiss the importance of this industry to the economic stability and revival of the American economy and culture.

[6:36am ET] Yesterday was the perfect storm with an announcement from an economic society that the US has been in a recession for a year, which given the generally accepted definition means since the start of 3Q07, which was followed by the manufacturing order book data that has disappeared, which was followed by Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Paulson speaking to adoring crowds of their banker friends.

So how did the rest of us respond? Was it price capitulation or indifference? Money flow tsunami or ripple? Reaction or simply no action?

US Economic data this week will likely hold back last week’s market advance. While everybody expects Tuesday’s vehicle sales report to be a bad one, the harshest data is likely to come from this morning’s (10:00am ET) order book in the manufacturing data, and in the rising unemployment to come in Friday’s employment data.

The Asia-Pacific and European markets started the week on a negative note, and the $USD futures are up; while the US equity futures are down and it appears that the T-Bill yield will come under further pressure.