NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
I don't like Mondays. Dow 8,000, here we come! Don't believe me? Well, we just had our third triple-digit down day in a row! What part of bummer don't you understand, cowboy? Shoot!
Again, ominously falling lower and lower towards the end of the day. As Nasdaq declined, I started feeling more and more sick. Mercifully the session ended before we broke 1,200. But we will, cowboy, believe me. We will.
Final tally: The Dow plunged 269 to 8,043, (3.2 percent), while the Naz was off 41 to 1,206 (3.3 percent). The market sucks, then you die. Hey, watch me, Kim Possible (Phone me, beep me, if you want to reach me. Makes sense!). I mean Andy Serwer on CNN and Headline News. Read Loose Change about Anheuser-Busch U. Here's wazzup:
STOCKYARD: THE MEDIA, MAN Hard to know what to pick out or pick on. How about the media? How about Disney? Okay! Stock hit a major downdraft today. News of a potential downgrade by Moody's, this even as "Signs" busted a major move at the box office. Hey, I hope my boys at Live Planet (Sean, Chris, Matt and, um, BenLo, didn't take DIS stock! Oh mercy! Push that scrap of paper right out of Nevada!)
To be fair here, AOL Time Warner (parent company of CNN/Money) broke $10 again -- gee what a surprise. So here's the question? Has Michael Eisner lost it? Or is it just the economy's fault? Let me know what you think. Love that nugget in the NYT on Viacom CEO Mel Karmazin's shirt. It reads "we won't do anything stupid." Just ask the guys at Sportsline.com -- Mel baby never sent them megabucks!...
Cox got KILLED today -- downgraded by CSFB. And Interpublic got crushed as it said it would delay the release of its second quarter numbers...In other news, the Philly SOX index fell more than 5 percent! No, a recovery in the chip sector isn't coming anytime soon!...
Which stocks were up? Goldies and Philip Morris! (A favorable ruling in California, plus it's defensive!) MO was up well over $2 to $47 plus!... Hey, my other car is a broom! (Thought you should know.)
FLY FISHING THROUGH THE MIDLIFE CRISIS Just finished this book by Howell Raines. Pretty damn amazing. (Thanks to Dave Roux and John H. for recommending it.) You have to fish at least a little bit to read this, as I would say that about 70 percent of it is about fishing. (Probably a male thing too.) But it's all a metaphor. For aging, maturing. It's part autobiographical. Part history. And it gives you tremendous insight into the mind of the man who runs the NY Times. For that alone it's worth it. Note: I cried at the end of this book. (And Mrs. Street Life caught me too!)
Raines' fishing mentor passes away and he gives this incredible eulogy. I don't think it's a coincidence that two books I cried over are about fishing. This one and Norman MacLean's "A River Runs Through It" (Screw Brad Pitt, it is a GREAT book. I actually don't mind the movie either. So there.) And it's funny, I really don't like fishing that much, to tell you the truth. Though I admire the indulgence of time, and I envy those who can find peace doing it.
Loose change
Banks got really beat up today, a la C and JPM. But hell, so did just about anything that trades!...Hey Prokofiev was sooo facile with the timpani, don't you think?...I am the Master of Disguise! (Am I turtle-y enough for the turtle club?)...
This from Todd over at the Cable News Network: "The Anheuser-Busch Foundation will donate five million dollars to U-C Davis to help the university build a 16 thousand-square-foot beer brewing laboratory. The gift will also help double its brewing undergraduate and graduate program and expand extension courses. U-C Davis graduates make up about half of the brewers at Anheuser-Busch, which produces about 40 percent of the world's beer. The food science department at Davis offers the only doctoral degree in the field in California." Jeez!...
Deep Blue says: "Sabres and stocks -- what do you think a conflict in Iraq might do -- 1,000 points off Dow 1,500? I'm really thinking of going 50 percent cash. Today theme songs are ubiquitous and mandatory, so what should be played when we trot those executives out on Capital Hill? Suggestions: theme from 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' or Dire Straits 'Money for Nothing'. Whatdoyathink? When is AT3 doing a write up on the brand destroying Porsche SUV? Aetna rising -- someone's doing something right there. Everyone's new favorite four letter word -- high fructose corn syrup..." Thanks Blue...
Anyone catch that huge Oregon football team thingie in Times Square?...
Laura Z says: "The buck-lust of baseball owners, as well as their visionlessness, is seen in this year's expansion to 24 teams. There's not enough talent to supply a dozen teams, let alone two dozen." -- The New Republic, 1969...
Psssst: "Tuesday's just as bad. Pass it on!"
Andrew Serwer is editor-at-large of Fortune magazine.
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