Are The Bulls Just Resting?

Morning News of Note:

• TWX AOL mulls giving away service - WSJ
  The Wall Street Journal reports Time Warner's (TWX) AOL unit is considering offering its entire menu of services, including email, free of charge to anyone with a high-speed Internet connection, people familiar with the matter said. Under the proposal, which AOL Chief Executive Jonathan Miller presented to top Time Warner executives in New York last week, AOL would stop charging a subscription fee for users who already have a high-speed Internet service or dial-up service from another provider. Subscribers who have traditional "dial-up" Internet access through AOL would still have to pay their monthly fee of as much as $25.90.
• MNST Monster Worldwide Employment Index rises in June
  Co announces the Monster Employment Index rose four points to 171 in June, marking a second consecutive month of solid growth and demonstrating continued strength in U.S. online recruitment activity. The Index's broad growth across all nine U.S. Census Bureau regions was largely driven by higher demand for white collar occupations such as management, finance and IT, as well as stepped-up efforts to recruit military related, healthcare, mining, and community and social services workers. Year over year, the overall Index is up 35 points or 26 percent.
• MSFT Microsoft to take on iPod - NY Post
  The NY Post reports Microsoft (MSFT) is planning to have a portable music and video player out by Christmas in a challenge to Apple Computer's (AAPL) iPod. The device will have a wireless Internet connection, enabling users to download music without being linked to a computer, a feature the iPod doesn't offer, people briefed on Microsoft's plans said.
• North Korea vows to test more missiles - WSJ
  WSJ reports North Korea on Thursday acknowledged that it had test-fired missiles and vowed to launch more, threatening to take even stronger action if opponents of the tests put pressure on the country. President Bush held separate telephone talks Thursday morning with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, but with differing results. Japanese officials said Tokyo and Washington agreed to push for sanctions against Pyongyang, while South Korean officials said they agreed only to cooperate in diplomacy, with no mention of punishing North Korea.
• Morning News Summary
  WSJ: AOL mulls giving away service... WPS Resources (WPS) is far along in talks to buy Peoples Energy (PGL)... Valassis in talks to purchase Advo (AD) for $1.1 bln... Land-value erosion seen as a problem for builders. NY Times: Motorola (MOT) and Intel (INTC) to invest in Clearwire. Reuters: Tesoro (TSO) may buy $4 bln Lyondell-Citgo refinery: Sources... Bayer AG (BAY) issues 34 mln new shares for Schering (SRNGF) deal. NY Post: Microsoft (MSFT) to take on iPod.

Market Comments: The market is trading higher in the first hour of trading. The retail sales reports that came out this morning were solid, and greeted fairly well by the market. I will have a roundup coming next.

Oil hit record highs yesterday, and is trading just under the $75 level today. Bond yields are down a bit to 5.19%. Bill Gross is calling for the Fed to actually start cutting rates by the end of the year.

Tech is acting a little better this morning, though semis are still lagging. GOOG has been acting good, and YHOO looks like it is now poised to break higher as well. And biotech started to turn around yesterday, which would be a welcome addition to the current rally phase.

The market hit short-term overbought levels Friday, so some consolidation is in order. But I think we will then see another push higher for the markets.

long AAPL, GOOG, MSFT