Thoughts

Amazon is trading down on its earnings report.

"One last thing."

- Lt Columbo

AMZN, which appears to have been priced to perfection, is trading down on its earnings report.

Baby Steps to QE 2?

St. Louis Fed President Bullard favors small increments of QE 2.

Prices Paid

Prices paid jumped to 63.3 from 53.9.

That's screwflation.

An Answer

The SEC tilts the field against short-sellers, and no one wants to endure the issuer retaliation.

"I'm not dead yet."

-- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

As a result, it is next to impossible to raise dedicated short capital.

The public views short-sellers as vultures rather than helpful providers of balanced views.

So, why endure all that when you can defraud the public on the long side like Countrywide's Mozilo and keep your tan and hundreds of millions of dollars.

That is the incentive system fostered knowingly or unknowingly by Washington.

Recommended Reading

Run, don't walk, to read lynx-eyed Dan Greenhaus's comments on the likelihood of QE 2.

"Over the last several days and weeks, the debate over quantitative easing has played out both in public and private. Members of the Federal Reserve have not been left out of the debate with virtually all Fed members taking a stand one way or the other.

After sifting through the various public statements, it appears that at a minimum, the "score" is 8-5 in favor of additional easing with four members -- Duke, Raskin, Tarullo and Warsh -- unknown. We believe that at least three of those four will support the Chairman and further easing, making another round of asset purchases all but a done deal."

October eurozone manufacturing PMI was 54.1, above expectations for 53.2 and September's 53.7.

On a composite basis (manufacturing and service), the numbers were lower than expectations for 53.7, at 53.4, and the prior month's 54.1.