It's All Fun & Games Until...

....Someone pokes you in the eye with a sharp stick, while you trip over a black cat, as you walk under a ladder, on Friday the 13th.... and oh yeh the S&P 500 breaks 1400.

Ok that shows me for being away from the computer for a few hours. What an ugly close. On the plus side, agricultural stocks (the last safe haven) finally took some beating today (not a huge one) but finally we got some sellers there. So all sectors have now been at least shown the door to the woodshed.

Ironically today was a far better day for the fund (with the markets down around 2%) than yesterday was (with the markets flat) - many of the holdings did worse yesterday and today we had some stalwarts like (ahem) LDK Solar (LDK) and (cough) Crocs (CROX).

Everytime I think financials are oversold and ready for "some" bounce some hedge fund whispers to his friend in the financial press of an impeding bankruptcy. It's a pretty good gig if you can find the work and have the right friends in the financial press. Countrywide Financial (CFC) falters nearly 30% today and is now under $6. "Smart money" (aka Bank of America) was buying a stake in this company for $18 just a few short months ago. But what's a few billion lost amongst friends - they will just "write it off", the Fed will print more money for them to shore up their balance sheet and we won't have to worry about it. Now if only the Fed would do that for us when we make bad investments.

The 2 insurers, MBIA (MBI) and Ambac (ABK) which should be out of business by the time Warren Buffet gets his competitor up and running make a perfect trio. Two insurers who need bad mortgages to insure to stay in business, and a company, CFC who specializes in making bad mortgages. What a perfect fit - they all deserve each other. Now if they could all hurry and file bankruptcy together on 1 day, we can move on with the rest of the market.

Well as we move into the worst opening week in the indexes since... 1932. We have now lost all of 2007 gain's (as of YESTERDAY not to mention today) in the S&P 500 for 2007. We are now working on erasing 2006 gain's. Did I mention anyone buying the S&P 500 on Dec 31, 1999 was down 8 years later... as of 2 DAYS ago. Now we are working on erasing 1999 :)

Yada Yada Yada ... (and you know which show I am talking about if you are over age 25)... anyhow we still have solar up today and not a true "fear" selling in agriculture. But we are inching ever close to panic levels by the day. It appears all that gain in the last week of December was just the hedge fund and mutual fund games working hard to window dress and keep performance up, to lock in bonuses and such. Now the reality hit as the ball fell in Times Square. I kept asking why this was not happening during September and October - I guess being early is a key theme here. :)

Back to the well tomorrow.... looks like AT&T (T) is now out with some not so great comments as well. I guess my only question is why are statements like this ""We're experiencing softness on the consumer side of the house from the economy," AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told a Citigroup investor conference in a presentation that was broadcast over the Web." a surprise to anyone? Really? Consumer slowing? Shocker. Maybe if all the financial press did not deny these facts for months on end (remember housing is only 4.5% of GDP!) we would of come to the realization a bit earlier. Anyhow, eventually this will be priced in, but for now emotions rule the day on the Street. As usual.

Anyhow, we have Mosaic (MOS) reporting tomorrow AM. Once again, expect great earnings - only question is will the increasingly heightened expectation of the new breed of investor flooding into fertilizer stocks be happy with them... (I did add a bit today as the stock finally fell to its 20 day moving average and a limit order of mine filled)