Pre market

Asia is very bullish and Europe is not too far behind. Shanghai continues to show weakness despite a belief by many that the Chinese government will not allow a market crash prior to the 2008 Olympics.

Earnings

GE was the big name reporting today and its earnings met estimates and its decision to sell it subprime unit WMC was met with approval.

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Some great news for stock market bulls as retail spending fell in June by the most in two years. The 0.9% decrease was far below a consensus range of -0.6% to 0.6% and and average estimate of flat sales.

``Consumer spending can't be sustained at the pace it has been,'' said Carl
Riccadonna, an economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York. ``We'll
remain below trend for growth in the second half. This could be the beginning of
the long-anticipated slowdown in housing-related spending.'' Bloomberg

No sh*t. We are seeing the beginning of the housing induced recession. No more
writing checks against your home equity.


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The euro broke through the US$1.38 mark Friday for the first time, as persistent worries about the strength of the U.S. economy pushed the European currency higher.
The 13-nation euro moved as high as US$1.3811 in afternoon European trading before falling back to US$1.3805. That was up from US$1.3783 in New York late Thursday. AP

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