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We discovered recently that a local fruit seller has wine 'en bidon'; you can get a 'buvable' (drinkable) Rosé for €11.65... quite a bargain.
€11.65... For ten litres. Sign me up.
Sure, it's not Cabernet d'Anjou - a slightly sweet Rosé which is beloved by your beloved writer, partly for the sweetness and partly out of a pledge of fealty to the house of Anjou (the Frogs hate it). But even my beloved Cabernet d'Anjou is only €1.80 a bot... which converts to an exorbitant €2.40 a litre... outrageous compared to the new €1.17 a litre benchmark (and the Rosé is 13% alcohol).
So there's another thing you now know abut your beloved GT. I am not a wine wanker. I will drink whatever is put in front of me. At the moment - having already plowed my way through a litre of Courpierre's cheapest Rosé, I've moved on to a Heineken with a shot of Cointreau, which I just invented; I call it a 'GT'.
I am also partial to Guinness with two shots of Tia Maria... I call that a 'GT'.
But my fave is Gin and Tonic... I call that a G&T 'coz I didn't invent it - otherwise I would call it a 'GT'.
Oddly enough, I have, however, become quite addicted to Roquefort. In the past, if I ate blue cheese all I could taste was mould. Now, oddly enough, my Vegemite Withdrawal Syndrome has me thinking that Roquefort tastes a little but like the Brown Nectar.
And I never buy anything except the plain labvel Roquefort from the local supermarket of course - none of your overpriced Cheese Wanker 'name brand' crap for me.
Reminds me of that joke about the Australian in 'Tour d'Argent' (a wanky restaurant in Paris for tourists and other riffraff who don't know about Le Procope).
Waiter: Et comme boisson, Monsieur?
Strayan: Ay?
Waiter: Does Monsieur wish somesink to drink? I can recommed ze 1958 Château Lafitte.
Strayan: 1958? Jesus, sport - 'aven't you got anything newer? Don't try and fob your old shit off on me, mate...
I also suffer from Four'n'Twenty Withdrawal Syndrome, Bacon and Eggs Withdrawal Syndrome, and Sausage Roll Withdrawal Syndrome.
Someone snd me a bloody Strayan care parcel... Vegemite, KR Darling Downs Middle Bacon, Four'n'Twenty Pies, and a 24-pack of Nanna's Sosso's. And a pair of 38 waist Rivers jeans.
Economic News
Mostly dull stuff...
- Export and Import prices - who cares. Not even gonna cover it. Just mentioned it to piss you off.
- NY Empire State Index - much much worse than expectations: -11 vs consensus of +6.7;
- University of Michigan Sentiment (absolutely meaningless and pointless twaddle) Index: 69.6 vs consensus of 77;
- Industrial production 0.1% versus expectations of 0.2%... no biggie;
- Capacity Utilisation 81.5 (in line with consensus).
Yawn...
Fed Open Market Operations
The Fed did one repurchase - a 4-day repurchase worth $9.25 billion, of which $5.7 billion was in Treasury-backed collateral.
Headline Indices
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 28.77 points (0.23%) to 12348.21 points. The index high for the day was 12376.66, while the low was 12278.62.
Major Advancers in the Dow were
- JP Morgan Chase (JPM) +0.64 (1.5%) to 43.25 on volume of 25.4 million units
- Hewlett Packard (HPQ) +0.61 (1.41%) to 43.87 on volume of 16.6 million units
- AIG (AIG) +0.61 (1.34%) to 46.11 on volume of 20.7 million units
- Merck (MRK) +0.63 (1.34%) to 47.53 on volume of 12.6 million units
- General Motors (GM) +0.31 (1.2%) to 26.13 on volume of 9.8 million units
Major Decliners in the Dow were
- Honeywell (HON) -1.47 (2.56%) to 56.04 on volume of 15.2 million units
- Intel (INTC) -0.35 (1.71%) to 20.11 on volume of 75.4 million units
- Du Pont (DD) -0.73 (1.58%) to 45.49 on volume of 7 million units
- United Technology (UTX) -1.12 (1.54%) to 71.53 on volume of 5 million units
- American Express (AXP) -0.58 (1.27%) to 45.11 on volume of 10.6 million units
Most Traded Dow stocks were
- Citigroup (C) -0.26 (1.01%) to 25.48 on volume of 83.9 million units
- Intel (INTC) -0.35 (1.71%) to 20.11 on volume of 75.4 million units
- Microsoft (MSFT) -0.08 (0.28%) to 28.42 on volume of 65.1 million units
- Pfizer (PFE) -0.12 (0.53%) to 22.33 on volume of 54.9 million units
- General Electric (GE) -0.02 (0.06%) to 34.37 on volume of 34.9 million units
The S&P500 Index advanced +1.13 points (0.08%) to 1349.99 points. The Nasdaq Composite lost 10.74 points (0.46%) to 2321.80 pointswhile the Nasdaq100 lost 7.21 points (0.4%) to 1780.38 points. The index high for the day was 1787.33, while the low was 1767.34.
The CBOE Volatility Index lost 0.52 points (2.04%) to 25.02 points. The CBOE Nasdaq100 Volatilty Index advanced +0.14 points (0.53%) to 26.66 points.
NYSE Total Volume totalled 3.5billion units and Nasdaq Total Volume totalled 2billion units.
| Major Market Statistics | |||
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | 12348.21 | -28.77 | -0.23% |
| S&P500 Index | 1349.99 | +1.13 | 0.08% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 2321.80 | -10.74 | -0.46% |
| Nasdaq100 | 1780.38 | -7.21 | -0.4% |
| CBOE Volatiity Index | 25.02 | -0.52 | -2.04% |
| CBOE Nasdaq100 Volatilty Index | 26.66 | +0.14 | 0.53% |
| NYSE Total Volume | 3.5bn | - | - |
| Nasdaq Total Volume | 2bn | - | - |
Precious Metals
Precious metals futures advanced as follows -
| Precious Metal Futures | |||
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| Gold | 905.6 | -5.2 | -0.57 |
| Silver | 1712.0 | -13.5 | -0.78 |
| Platinum | 2083.9 | +78.0 | 3.89 |
| Palladium | 446.30 | +5.15 | 1.17 |
Energy Complex
Energy futures performed as follows -
| Energy Futures | |||
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| Crude Oil | 95.69 | +0.23 | 0.24 |
| Heating Oil | 2.6509 | -0.0157 | -0.59 |
| Gasoline RBOB | 2.4900 | +0.0139 | 0.56 |
| Natural Gas | 8.684 | -0.088 | -1 |
| Ethanol | 2.100 | unch | 0 |
Bellwethers
The nine-stock group that makes up the Rant bellwethers declined on average by 0.9%. The fallout occurred as follows:
- General Electric (GE) down $0.02 (0.06%) to $34.37 on volume of 34.85 million units.
- Citigroup (C) down $0.26 (1.01%) to $25.48 on volume of 83.85 million units.
- Wal-Mart (WMT) down $0.53 (1.06%) to $49.44 on volume of 21.81 million units.
- IBM (IBM) up $+0.03 (0.03%) to $106.16 on volume of 5.32 million units.
- Intel (INTC) down $0.35 (1.71%) to $20.11 on volume of 75.43 million units.
- Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.232 (0.99%) to $23.298 on volume of 51.85 million units.
- Google (GOOG) down $2.61 (0.49%) to $529.64 on volume of 5.17 million units.
- Fannie Mae (FNM) down $0.95 (3.13%) to $29.39 on volume of 11.78 million units.
- Freddie Mac (FRE) up $+0.11 (0.39%) to $28.40 on volume of 9.58 million units.
Currency Futures
| Currency Futures | |||
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| U.S. Dollar Index | 76.210 | -0.030 | -0.04 |
| British Pound | 1.9551 | -0.0104 | -0.53 |
| Canadian Dollar | 0.9904 | -0.0092 | -0.92 |
| Japanese Yen | 0.9308 | +0.0023 | 0.25 |
| Swiss Franc | 0.9159 | +0.0045 | 0.49 |
| Euro FX | 1.4657 | +0.0036 | 0.25 |
| Australian Dollar | 0.9033 | +0.0036 | 0.4 |
| New Zealand Dollar | 0.78430 | -0.0011 | -0.14 |
