Another opening bounce

"The nature of man is always the same; it is their habits that separate them." - Confucius

Market News of Note:

• Consumer Price Index: U.S. Inflation to Reach 15-Year High After Storms, Survey Says Hurricane-stoked fuel costs may trigger the biggest jump in U.S. consumer prices in 15 years and another bump in the Federal Reserve's target rate, the latest Bloomberg News monthly survey of economists shows. The consumer price index will rise 3.7 percent for 2005, based on the median estimate of 66 economists, up 0.5 percent from the previous month's forecast. The jump in prices would be the biggest since a 6.1 percent gain in 1990. (Full Story) Bloomberg
• EBAY VRSN: PayPal to Buy Payment Service From VeriSign for $370 Million EBay Inc.'s PayPal electronic-payment-service unit said it will pay about $370 million to acquire VeriSign Inc.'s payment-gateway business, in a move to add customers and expand services available to merchants. Internet-security company VeriSign's payment-gateway business, which processed more than $40 billion in total payment volume last year, provides technology that allows merchants to authorize and process credit-card payments on the Web. (Full Story) WSJ
• TWX: Icahn Pressures Time Warner for Changes Carl C. Icahn, the investor, has increased his stake in Time Warner and is challenging the track record of the company's senior managers and directors, dating back to its merger with America Online. The moves are a part of his campaign to push for changes and board seats at the media conglomerate. Mr. Icahn is expected to say in a letter to Time Warner shareholders, to be filed with regulators as soon as this morning, that the company's board and top management have produced a "dismal record of mistakes and inaction" since the AOL merger in 2000 (Full Story) NY Times
• GOOG: With 'Free' Lure, Will Google Tap More Markets? It's hard to compete with "free." Some rivals of Web search powerhouse Google Inc. have already learned that lesson. Now, companies in a broader set of industries are grappling with how Google's ad-fueled expansion could potentially make it harder for them to charge for consumer services and products. Google last month proposed that it offer free high-speed wireless Internet access throughout San Francisco, raising the question of why residents would pay for Internet access from cable and telephone companies. (Full Story) WSJ
• TRLG: Co raises guidance for Q3 (Sep), to EPS of $0.29-0.30 from $0.22-0.24 vs. $0.25 Reuters Estimates consensus; raises Q3 (Sep) rev guidance to $35 mln from $29-30 mln vs. $30.64 mln consensus. Company stated that it is currently comfortable with fourth quarter analyst consensus estimates of revenues of approximately $24.3 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.20

Market Comments: The market is getting another opening bounce. The problem is that late-day selling keeps surfacing. You know I prefer a market that opens weak and builds strength throughout the day. Lately, we have been getting the opposite.

DNA reported strong earnings last night, giving the BTK a small pop. I am a little surprised AMGN is not participating more. INFY also reported strong numbers this morning. Aside from that, housing stocks and energy are up the most, given they have been sold the hardest over the last week. Let's see if the bulls can hang in there today, like the Angels did last night.

long AMGN, GOOG, TWX