The Bull And Bear Arguments

Materials this week:

Weatherford down 8.9%
AK Steel down 23%
Freeport McMoran down 7.0%
Alcoa down 7.7%
Monsanto down 6.7%

	Price		Change	%Change
VANG SC VAL		---
FCS		---
MON		---
WFT		---

Bears are arguing that the bear market will not be over until the leadership groups get taken out--energy and materials. Bulls say this is a pipe dream, at least for energy; fundamentals for this group only get better in the second half of 2008 and into 2009.

Next week, Alcoa report Tuesday. Key points:

--Aluminum prices relatively strong
--North America slower, Asia still strong
--Big issue: power consumption (30%-40 percent of costs)

This week: Dow down 0.5 percent
Transports down 4.7 percent
NASDAQ down 3.0 percent
S&P 500 down 1.2 percent

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