EU and IMF officials begin talks with Ireland tomorrow and with a blessing for additional help from the UK (UK banks have the biggest exposure in Europe to Ireland), it seems that the Irish fire will be temporarily put out and bondholders will be saved again. With respect to Greece, Austria said they will not block their portion of the next tranche of aid. Commodity prices are trading lower again as concerns grow that China will step up their tightening steps with talk that price controls on food may soon be implemented (a dangerous policy indeed). The rise in US mortgage rates over the past week was immediately felt as the MBA said refi’s fell 15.1% to a 4 month low and purchases fell by 5%. Bankrate last night said the avg 30 yr rate rose to 4.55%. ABC confidence fell 1 pt to -47, 1 pt below the one yr avg.
After the report from AAII last Thursday that individual investor bullishness rose to the highest since Jan ’07, II followed today with the news that bullishness amongst newsletter writers rose to the highest since Dec ’07 at 56.2, up sharply from 48.4 last week. Bears fell to a 6 month low to 20.2 from 23.1 last week.
