"No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no past at my back." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Morning News of Note:

• Oil Reserves: White House May Tap Oil Reserves Closure of Wells in Region Prompts Capacity Concerns Amid Fragile Global Supply Hurricane Katrina's march through the Gulf of Mexico and its key oil and natural-gas production facilities sparked fears of damage and rattled energy markets, moving the White House to signal its willingness to open the nation's emergency oil stockpile if needed. The extent of the hurricane's effect may not be known for weeks, and preliminary inspections of offshore oil and gas facilities have only begun. (Full Story) WSJ
• California Gas Cap?: California Watches Hawaii's Effort to Cap Gasoline Prices With chronically high pump prices straining its laid-back ethos, Hawaii embarks this week on a radical experiment to cap gasoline prices, a move being keenly watched nationwide by legislators and consumer groups eager to rein in record fuel costs. Interest will be especially high in California, a unique market that some experts liken to Hawaii's because of the high prices charged by gas stations and big profits reaped by a few in-state refiners (Full Story) LA Times
• GOOG MSFT: Google asks court to void Lee's Microsoft pact Google has asked a federal judge in California to rule that Kai-Fu Lee's contract with Microsoft is unenforceable and that the researcher should be allowed to join Google unfettered by the terms of his employment deal. The two rivals are locked in a legal dispute over the hiring of Lee. Google announced on July 19 that it was hiring Lee to head up a new China research center. (Full Story) CNET
• YHOO: Yahoo! unveils new e-mail search function - CNET (33.68 ) CNET reports that Yahoo on Tue announced the phased rollout of new search functions for the co's free Web-based e-mail service. New features include the ability to search e-mail header, body, and attachment content; display snippets or short excerpts with highlighted matches on search terms; view thumbnails of all the pictures and documents saved in their e-mail account. The new search functions will be available Tue to a subset of Yahoo e-mail users, with general availability coming within the coming months.

Market Comments: The market opened lower this am, after a strong upside reversal yesterday. I would love to see the same sort of late-day strength today to spark additional short covering into the close. Energy stocks are up again in early trading, while retail stocks are mostly lower. WMT had to close 123 stores due to Katrina.

Factory orders (-1.9%) and Consumer Confidence (105.6) both came in above expectations this morning. I am still 100% net long.

long GOOG