PPI takes the market lower

"The wise person possesses humility. He knows that his small island of knowledge is surrounded by a vast sea of the unknown." - Harold C. Chase

Morning News of Note:

• US Economy: Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said rising fuel costs have drained consumers' purchasing power and will undoubtedly be a drag on global economic expansion; surge in energy prices after storms effectively represented a tax that drained purchasing power from oil consumers; status of global refining capacity worriseom b/c it rising slower than oil production
• TGT: Target-TGT expects its October SSS to be up 3%-5%
• RFX: Refco Files for Bankruptcy, Flowers Buys Futures Unit Refco Inc., the broker reeling from a bad-debt scandal, filed for bankruptcy court protection and agreed to sell its futures-trading business to a group led by J.C. Flowers & Co. for $768 million. Christopher Flowers' New York-based buyout firm will acquire the biggest independent U.S. futures broker with partners including Texas Pacific Group. Refco applied for Chapter 11 protection for some units, setting up a possible auction, according to a PRNewswire release late yesterday. (Full Story) Bloomberg
• MDT: Medtronic-MDT ENDEAVOR IIII data solid; expect launch in 2007-Outperform@TWPT

Market Comments: The PPI report came in a little higher than expected, which has spooked the stock market and led to some early selling. The market closed strong yesterday, so let's see if it can reverse today's early losses and make it two strong closes in a row. That would be a change in character from last week's strong opens followed by weak closes.

long MDT