Monday Curtain Raiser and the Week Ahead

I am bushed from a weekend of modest celebration of the 2nd annivesary of my kidney transplant. The kidney is still working quite well! This post may be brief.

Stock futures are drifting and not doing much of anything tonight. Andy Swan's Future's Manipulation 101 is a must read to understand how quickly the picture can change WRT futures. I've actually spent a good amount of time looking at futures charts and it's always amazing how things often turn on a dime once the London crew gets to work, but magical turnarounds can certainly wait until 8:30 et morning data releases, or really anytime. The key is really to watch the relationship between cash and the futures and the depth of discounts, or premiums which will either kick in computer driven sell orders, or buy orders.

Financial Armageddon (excellent book) author Michael J. Panzner explored the issue of the "machines" on Wall Street" on his blog over the weekend - yes, those machines that do the computer sell and buy programs. Click here to read about the "Rise of the (Selling) Machines. Yes, selling can beget selling.

Mainstream media is focused on the coming inflation data, PPI and CPI, this Thursday and Friday. Core readings on both are forecast to rise a modest .2%. Tuesday's retail sales data could send tremors through the market - a rise of .3% is expected. And Wednesday we get a reminder of just how disheveled the financial affairs of the country are in when the current account deficit is released - expected to show a $203 bln 4th quarter deficit.

One interesting sideshow will be earnings from some of the big brokerage names. This includes Goldman Sachs (GS) on Tuesday, Lehman (LEH) on Wednesday and Bear Sterns (BSC) on Thursday. (GS) is expected to post earnings of $4.83 a share.