Congestion Day

by Larry Levin

After a huge move, like Friday's sell-off, markets often take a break. Although the S&P made a new low, the early and latter parts of the day were very range bound. The market was digesting Friday's surprising drop.

The financial sector was particularly weak today, after Lehman Brothers posted a surprisingly large quarterly loss of $2.8 billion. I thought Lehman said all is well ????no problems here. When are the banks going to come clean, completely clean, regarding what is on their books? The poor performance of LEH just adds more uncertainty about how long it will take banks to recover from the mortgage market's near collapse. Lehman shares dropped 8.7% in regular-session trading.

Oil dropped $4.00-barrel today, which is nice, but doesn't put much of a dent in the Thursday and Friday explosion of nearly $17.00. That said, at least it its a start.

According to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, average retail prices in the United States for a gallon of regular gasoline surpassed $4 on Sunday for the first time. Prices rose to $4.023 on Monday, up from Sunday's level of $4.005 and 30.2% higher than a year ago. This will certainly keep alive concerns about consumer spending.

Real Time Trading Signals*for

Trade Date: 6/9/08

E-Mini S&P Trades*
(before fees and commissions):

1) B/away sell @ 8:30am at 1364.25 = +3.25 (1 lot)

2) PP sell @ 9:15am at 1371.00 = +2.00 (1 lot)

3) VA buy @ 9:25am at 1367.50 = b/e (1 lot)

4) OTF buy @ 10:00am at 1365.25 = +3.00 (1 lot)

5) VA buy @ 10:45am at 1367.25 = -2.00 (1 lot)

6) FT sell @ 1:35pm at 1358.25 = -2.00 (1 lot)

7) Algorithm trades (3)...combined total...+4.75

E-Mini Russell Trades*
(before fees and commissions):

1) Sell @ 10:05am at 739.3 = +1.3 (1 lot)

2) Buy @ 10:41am at 738.8 = -1.2*2

3) Sell @ 2:14pm at 732.4 = +1.0 (1 lot)...-$10.00


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