The market seems to be selling-off on the back of limited bad news imo, apart from the dollar that is.

If you can hold your nerve and apart from any short term requirements to offload poor performing stocks, I have a couple!!, my advice would be sit tight. This does not have the feel of the tech(mining!) bubble at all. Difference being there are a lot of good fundamentals, unlike in 2000 when there were a lot of over rated nothing companies.

the president discussed the need for legislation and changes in the U.S. tax code to help subprime mortgage borrowers avoid losing their homes.

However, analysts and investors said subprime borrowers who are not speculators made up such a small portion of the troubled market that any proposals would bring little change.

"This is more messaging," said Richard Steinberg, president of Steinberg Global Asset Management in Boca Raton, Florida. "It's more pomp."

For that reason, analysts said investors in such sectors as housing, retail and finance -- some of which saw a bump up in value on the news -- shouldn't expect a big boost from Bush's plans over the longer term.

Many analysts have warned that a spreading credit crisis could drag the U.S. economy into recession, while Bush administration officials have repeatedly said fundamentals remained healthy and global growth was robust.

Bush's proposals include plans to give the Federal Housing Administration more flexibility by allowing lower down-payment requirements and enabling homeowners to refinance into FHA-insured mortgages. He also called for changes in the tax code to eliminate penalties for refinancing mortgages, and better disclosure from mortgage brokers on rates and fees.

Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business, said the plans were not enough.

"There's the immediate problem of the people who are stuck, and then there's the longer-term problem of fixing this market so it doesn't happen again," said Morici, a former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission. "You always have to start with that second thing and then say, 'How do we bridge these people into that new market?'

"In terms of the immediate problem, all you really can do is put some Band-Aids on until you come up with some mortgage products that these people can afford," he added.

NO BAILOUT

Investors, while sensitive to helping those borrowers in trouble, don't want the government to simply bail them out.

"Speculators should suffer," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer with Solaris Asset Management in New York. "Investing is fraught with risk, and if you bail them out, it just encourages more speculators."

Bush agreed: "It's not the government's job to bail out speculators or those who made the decision to buy a home they knew they could never afford."

Earlier on Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assured the markets the Fed will act as necessary to limit the damage to the U.S. economy, but there will be no bailouts.

But Ghriskey called Bush's plans a Band-Aid for the financial markets -- a sentiment echoed by others.

"If you're a politician looking for re-election, you want your voters to be less unnerved about what's going on in the mortgage market," said Ken Crawford, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management in Clayton, Missouri.

The key is patience.

So Maddoctor should we short the DJIA?

400 was the big number but cos of the holiday and what somebody on the traders thread said "the US likes to go on holiday with a fuzzy feeling" its the time to wait -until tuesday and i see no sell signal tonight.

first sell signal today at 425 but too late for me

halifax .... no! ..... Dow finished very strongly near its peak = +170 ..... US is now shut for long w/e which will give time for things to settle down a bit, but implication is positive at least for the short term

cynic , wot you looking at - DOW +119

i was using IG live prices ...... i may have misread, or the indicator may have implied a lower Dow opening at some point ....... anyway, the end figure looks to be 13342 with indicator showing +22 after the close.

From Traders Report today. Not often they specify a particular day for fireworks:

With some big economic data released next week and the Bank of England's first meeting since CPI inflation data in the UK dipped below its target of 2% we can expect some serious volatility on Thursday.

dow above the 50ma so just a correction - tho why beats me

am busy doing other things, so not watching 100%, so have put a tight stop at 13425, 13441 being a questionable key number

Is the market putting a little pressure on the BOE in front of tomorrows interest decision?

just nerves and a bit of profit taking after a decent recovery over the last few days ..... have gone long Dow at 13296, but pretty gently

I posted on another thread about 5 weeks ago a possible "head and shoulders" pattern on the FTSE. Although the right shoulder didn't form definitively the FTSE is still struggling to break through the "theoretical" kneck line. In so much as all this technical stuff is a load of old hooey anyway, I think a retest of the 5850 levels is possible. Where it goes from there (if it goes there) is anybodys guess. If you look back at the recent corrections they've all formed a "W" shape (or double bottom). The current "correction" is in the first "V" of a W.

In my opinion....and observation.

Strawbs.

Home sales in USA is worse than expected...brace for another downturn tomorrow.

And the Feds has not indicated any further drop in interest rates...very bad news. The subprime concern could be much worse than what it is now. House sales and rise have also slowed down considerably in UK. Certainly hope the FTSE will not dive tomorrow but I think it will. Good luck.

And BoE's interest rate is not going down today...this will plunge the FTSE today.

i don't think anyone expects the rates to be dropped ..... the interest is in whether or not there will be any accompanying statement and what that may say or indicate

The subprime fears has re-emerged that there was a 12.5% monthly decline in contract signings on existing homes, the largest drop in six years in the US. Dow will drop today imo.

hlyeo98 how is your FTSE short? Dow moving the wrong way for you at the moment.

Well, my post #1167 about thursday being a day of buttock clenching volatility turned out to be a white elephant. Just goes to show that the brokers get it wrong sometimes!

They have their agenda which as you know is often the opposite to what they say.