Today’s Market

The market fell yet again. The fourth quarter has gotten off to an awful start. The S&P 500 fell -0.61% today and our Buy List dropped -0.35%. Thanks to Medtronic (MDT), we were able to beat the market again. I think the company will be able to capitalize off changes in the industry. Glenn Reicin of Morgan Stanley noted that Medtronic is taking advantage of Guidant’s (GDT) problems.
There was some bad news for a certain Attorney General in New York. Mr. Spitzer suffered two defeats today.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled that Spitzer had stepped outside his turf with a probe into home-lending practices at major banks, declaring that enforcing bank laws was a matter of federal, not state jurisdiction.
In a separate matter, Spitzer’s office dropped four remaining criminal charges against former Bank of America Corp. broker Theodore Sihpol, whom he had accused of helping a hedge fund trade mutual funds illegally.
In a separate civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sihpol on Wednesday agreed to pay a $200,000 fine and submit to a five-year ban from the securities industry, without admitting or denying any wrongdoing.
A jury in June acquitted Sihpol of 29 counts, including grand larceny. It deadlocked on the four counts, leading Justice James Yates of the New York State Supreme Court to declare a mistrial.
On Wednesday, Spitzer dropped the four remaining counts.
His political opponents said the simultaneous slip-ups could prove a drag as Spitzer, a Democratic, sets his sites on his next political goal — winning the governor’s office in November 2006.

After 16 months of raising interest rates, the Federal Reserve is finally impacting long-term rates. The 10-year Treasury bond closed at its highest yield in six months.

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on October 12th, 2005 at 10:04 pm

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