Wall Street has deals to get done and they were excited about BAC’s secondary this morning. The way these things work is simple: if you’re an institution, you better play ball and buy or you’re cut out of future deals you might really like.

So we opened higher amid this enthusiasm and the bad news from HPQ last night was brushed-off. That’s the way it’s been with news—front burner it, back burner it and repeat.
































































































































The game on the Street has always been first and foremost to make sure that deals can get done. If you’re an institution looking for good calls from your broker you had best take whatever they must sell. If you don’t play ball, you won’t get that early call on a hot tip or new issue. If you’re just some retail broker out in the hinterlands then you won’t get any calls about anything good, just more products to push and assets to gather. It’s the way things work.

Now the week is short and I expect, barring any earthshaking events, for things to start to quiet down. Da Boyz will take off to their weekend digs and leave a few sentries in foxholes protecting whatever positions need it.

I’ll probably write tomorrow because things are quiet here. I was able to get Francie out of bed and into the car for a little ride today. It was a sunny day in Baltimore and she needed a change of scene. But it wasn’t too comfortable either. It may sound silly but I feel like we have a large extended family in the readership. And, I ordered computers today and hope to have them in the next two weeks. I’m growing weary of this older laptop and missing my double screens which are on a ship somewhere heading up the western coast of South America to Los Angeles.

We’re mostly on the sidelines and that may be temporary. Sometimes you have to follow your systems no matter anything else.

Let’s see what happens.