Cuttone and Co. Inc.

On this date in 1973, Pink Floyd's album "Dark Side of the Moon" entered Billboard's top 200 chart and remained there for the next741 weeks, finally falling off on October 8, 1988. After Billboard began to depend upon SoundScan for sales figures in 1991, the album returned to the chart for another 15+ year run. With over 40 million units sold worldwide, this college dorm favorite remains one of the bestselling albums of all-time.

The biggest single off of the album was "Money" and money has certainly been on consumer's minds in recent months. Today's Case-Shiller Index showed that housing

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Remember An American Werewolf
In London?
 
Before that film, there had been lots of horror movies in which characters were transformed from man to beast and back again but none of them ever showed much of the actual transformation. In "An American Werewolf In London", director John Landis gave us a gruesome look at what it would be like if one animal rapidly morphed into another creature. It certainly wasn't pretty, yet viewers were riveted. Throw a little Creedence Clearwater Revival onto the soundtrack and youhave the makings of a hit movie.
 
The stock market is attempting a similar

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Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.
 
--William Shakespeare, Richard III
 
Even the weariest of investors can take solace in the fact that today is the first day of spring. Here in the New York area, daffodils are about to bloom and an air of optimism and hope is creeping into the collective consciousness. Baseball is around the corner and songbirds have begun to sing in the yard. Heck, even the stock market has been rising the last couple of weeks.
 
Even as the mood lifts, however, it must be recognized that there are still troubling signs on the horizon

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This morning's question concerns the staying power of our recent rally. So far in the first quarter risk aversion has been so great and the markets have been so weak, that it has become an article of faith among the trading congregation that the market is on the expressway to perdition, never to recover in our lifetimes.

Perhaps I exaggerate, but only slightly.

Good news has been non-existent this year and trading desks have been operating under heavy black clouds. Remember: it was merely one week ago that sentiment was as bad as most of us can ever recall seeing.

But something extraordinary

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So, that's what an up day feels like. I almost forgot how it felt.
 
The market was starving for some good news yesterday and Vikram Pandit threw it a big hunk of red meat before the opening. The Citigroup chairman's statement that his bank was turning a profit provided sustenance to famished bulls and lifted stocks to a stunning 6% gain. Pandit's remarks were merely the latest in a micro-trend of positive comments about the banks and they caused a feeding frenzy as shorts scrambled to cover and cash moved in from the sidelines. There was almost an air of optimism in the air, as the financials

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Like disappointed séance participants, investors were let down this morning as the second round of China's stimulus package failed to materialize. Remarks by Chinese premier Wen Jiabao indicated that the hoped for stimulus was just an apparition, as he stated his belief that China was on track to reach its target of 8% growth this year. Disappointed European investors have already given up the ghost this morning, and most European indices are sharply lower.
 
Traders will be monitoring interest rate cut announcements by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank this morning. ECB head

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Today marks the 76th anniversary of the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the 32nd president of the United States. FDR took office during one of the darkest times in our nation's history. The depression was at its nadir and despair had a firm grip on the populace. Social unrest was stirring and everywhere there were doubts about the future of western capitalist democracies.

As he stood bravely at the podium on that March morning, FDR knew that he was addressing a demoralized nation, one that had endured three years of depression following the stock market crash of 1929. Against this

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This market decline reminds me of Wile E. Coyote's plunges off canyon cliffs in the old Road Runner cartoons. We are left leaning over the edge and looking down as the market drops and drops and drops..... We're all expecting to see a puff of dust when the fall finally hits bottom, but unfortunately, market drops tend not to end quite so definitively.
 
Yesterday certainly felt ugly and there appears to be no end in sight to our present woes. When you have banks faltering, governments teetering and the Warren Buffets of the world warning of tough times for the foreseeable future, it should come

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