The Yen for Yen

The Japanese Yen is up more than 50 points in futures trading and that has helped to knock the stock market into negative territory today. 1410 continues to be my area of greatest interest on the S&P 500, that was the low of the day when the market rallied after the FOMC announcement last Wednesday. A close below that mark today would be bearish in my view and set us up for a white knuckle Monday. So far today, we have had a test of that area and the market is attempting to bounce off the lows. By the way it's not just dollar vs yen that's weak.. how 'bout dollar being at a six yr low vs the Brazilian real of all things.

Also continue to keep a wary eye on the price of crude - still above $66 and news out of the Middle East. These are the wildcards as well. Resolution of the Iran-Britain problem would likely send crude slumping and spark a relief rally in stocks.

I unloaded a good chunk of my Dendreon (DNDN) March 7-1/2 calls this morning at a profit of 733% for which I am grateful and ecstatic over. Since I make a living trading, a big boost like this is good and keeps food on the table, etc - so no complaints at all about my profit even if it was a bit below the highs since in some ways it really is almost money for nothing. After rising to as high as $19.45 in pre market the stock is up 159% at above $13 under minded a bit by some pretty bad analysts at firms like Lazard and UBS who are saying there's a good chance the full FDA could delay Provenge's release until 2010. These are the same analysts who were telling us Provenge had virtually no chance of making it through yesterday's CBER meeting. Even worse than taking away some options gravy from the speculators, the analysis from these frauds puts doubts in the minds of the people who are suffering from the disease. Wickedness and perversity reigns supreme among those who wear pinstipes and wingtips in the Wall Street office environment. I will hold the rest of my calls to see what happens in the coming days.

Yesterday the likes of Bear Stearns and Indymac had the nerve to say that subprime remains contained. Here's something from the real world camp: Bank of America Says Housing May Trigger `Correlation Crisis'.

I'm going on vacation next week, but will continue posting.