Tech issues continued to lead the market today, as the NASDAQ 100 today pushed to a new multi-year closing high while the S&P 500 and the Dow failed to reach that level and showed relative weakness. Notable momentum builders on the tech side were Motorola and EMC (which benefited from broker upgrades), as well as Microsoft, which was stirred by rumors it might take a stake in the wildly successful social-networking site “Facebook”. In regard to Microsoft, there was also some anticipation of the scheduled release of 'Halo 3', a popular videogame.

Notable is the fact that the broad market retreated with falling crude oil prices (which remain quite elevated near the $ $80.50 mark). In recent days, the market has rallied in spite of / in sympathy with surging crude oil prices.

According to comments made by Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher today, the Fed has some “wiggle room' for additional interest rate cuts. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke also appeared in public, but his speech on education failed to address economic issues.

It was a slow news day for the market today. In contrast, tomorrow should be a very busy session, notably in regard to economic data releases (see below). This may have prompted some traders to remain on the sidelines today, as reflected in today’s very modest overall volume output.

Key economic data for the week starting September 24, 2007. Numbers shown are consensus estimates (market anticipates this value) and prior value.

Tuesday:
	9:00 S&P/Case-Shiller Composite index July: -4.0% / -3.5% 10:00 Consumer Confidence September: 104.4 / 105.0 Existing Home Sales August: 5.48M / 5.75M

Wednesday:
	8:30 Durable Goods Orders August: -3.0% / 6.0%

Thursday:
	8:30 Real GDP 2nd quarter : 3.9% / 4.0% GDP Deflator: 2.7% / 2.7% 10:00 New Home Sales August: 830K / 870K

Friday:
	8:30 Personal Income August: 0.4% / 0.5%Personal Spending: 0.4% / 0.4% PCE Core Price Index: 0.1% / 0.1% 9:45 Chicago PMI September: 53.0 / 53.8 10:00 Michigan Sentiment September: 84.0 / 83.8

© HGH Associated Press

News Archive (from 7/1/2007 until 9/30/2007)