The good thing about earnings season is that it allows us to focus our attention again to company fundamentals and less so on what the government will do to ‘fix things.’ Regardless of whether it was just inventory restocking or signs of a real recovery, Intel’s results being well received has a better feeling to it than a short term bump that the market has gotten from some government initiative since the crisis started. Stocks have shrugged off the distress at CIT and hopefully it has more to do with confidence that its competitors can fill in the hole rather than a resignation that it will join the growing list of bailed out companies who only exist to pay off its debts and government obligations instead of growing (Zombie). With the drop in mortgage rates, the MBA said refi’s rose 17.7% but purchases fell by 9.4% to a 7 week low. ABC confidence rose 1 pt to -51. CPI, NY Fed survey and IP are also key today. China’s FX reserves topped $2 trillion for the first time in Q2. UK jobless claims rose much less than expected and at its slowest pace since May ’08.
