JANUARY 26, 2005

Very quiet day in stocks today. Second day of higher highs and lower lows. There was a lack of compelling news to provide a catalyst. Mortgage applications fell 4% and oil and gas inventories came in about as expected. Crude closed the day at about $49, so no great change there.

The Euro current a/c surplus came in at a surplus of 3.2 billion euros. The German business climate index jumped unexpectedly to 96.4 vs 96.2 in Dec, and the U.K. GDP came in at a stroger than expected 2.8%. All this helped the Euro close stronger at 130.78 up over a penny from yesterday. Gold followed up $4.50.

Bomds were fairly quiet, altough the two year note auction of 24 billion yeilded the highest rate sine May of 2002 at 3.245%.

Tommorrow I think we will have to look to earnings releases to provide a spark as I don't believe that durable goods or non-farm payroll numbers will have a lasting impact. Only six Dow stocks moved more that a half point and only UTX more than a point. After the last two months of last year I bet a lot of brokerage execs were looking for more of the same this year with more volatility and volume. Sorry. No wonder the New York Stock Exchange wants to increase trading hours.