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  • October 19, 2008 10:12 PM EDT by Brian Sullivan

    Thanks for Nothing (Really)

    This weekend nothing happened.

    That's not true, of course.   Things did happen.   All over the country.    I'm referring to major economic "things."   No massive banks collapsed.   Iceland didn't melt.   U.S. taxpayers didn't revolt.   Oliver Stone's movie about the President, "W," bombed at the box office.   The point: perhaps things are slowly moving back to normal.

    In the financial markets these days no news is good news.   There is news, naturally, there always is.   The front page of the Wall Street Journal's website at this hour highlights Obama's fundraising prowess, details on the E.U. bank plan, and how Michigan is sweating a possible GM/Chrysler deal.   But compared to the daily headlines over the past few months, this weekend was positively benign.    As a trader contact of mine noted in an email that this is the first Sunday in a while he can remember actually watching a football game and enjoying it (of course, he's a Jets fan so you can't blame him if he never really enjoys it).   For the first time in a long time there seemed a relative normalcy in the markets.

    It won't last.

    The President has called a summit about the financial crisis.  OPEC meets this week and wants to "significantly" cut output because the price of oil is just too doggone cheap.   Monday the Index of Leading Economic Indicators is released and on Friday we see how dismal existing home sales were in September. And hundreds of companies release earnings.  It could be another wild week.   But for now, let's enjoy the slience.

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John S

I wish the President wouldn't meet, have you noticed that every time the officials meet and then come out and talk the Market goes down. If they want to talk how about the press not broadcasting it and maybe we will recover, just a suggestion.

October 19, 2008 at 11:58 pm

Chiefos McStacy

Mr. Sullivan, The big story of the weekend is that Gen. Colon Powell has endorsed Senator Obama, and is being very open about his reasons. The foriegn policy portion of Obama/Biden's platform just got a big shot of "Gavitas". Even Christopher Hitchens came out for Senator Obama, and he took a brow beating from Laura Ingram for his new position. He said that "Obama has been more trainable as far as his progression from being the extreme anti-war spokesperson, to now admitting that the surge worked and that we are winning this war!! This is a paradigm shift for the war on terror, as the Iraq forces draw down in the theatre and redeploy in Afghanistan, the tide will turn quickly. I don't know how this election will turn out, but at least we can feel more secure now that both candidates are allowing for victory. The sooner the region stabalizes, the faster the recovery will progress. Strength! Chiefos McStacy

October 20, 2008 at 2:22 am

Al

Don't get too excited Chiefos. If Obama had been president last year, he would have made the wrong call (again) on the surge and we'd have a very destabilized Middle East, with a fractured Iraq. His judgment on foreign policy issues (evidenced again by his slow and improper response to the invasion of Georgia - Russia has veto authority in the U.N. Security Council unbeknownst to him) evidence a lack of the most basic understanding of foreign affairs. Oh yeah, let's invade nuclear power Pakistan while we're at it - great idea. Powell had lost touch with the current administration, so I think his endorsement was as much about vindictiveness as it was actual support for Obama.

October 20, 2008 at 9:53 am

about this blog

  • Brian Sullivan joined FOX Business Network (FBN) in April 2008 as an anchor. He co-anchors the 10am-12pm ET hours of the FOX Business block. Prior to joining FBN, Sullivan served as an anchor for Bloomberg Television where he hosted the programs Morning Call and In Focus.

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