NASDAQ Technical Picture - Cautious Chop Ahead of the FED

The economic calendar is key tomorrow with PPI in pre-market and the Fed policy statement at 2:15 EST. I won't have any open positions when the FED speaks.

The funds futures market is pricing in a 50 bp ease from the 5.25% target but most experts expect 25 bp and still others expect the Fed to sit on its hands until the economy shows clearer signs of softening or inflation cooling. Higher oil, slowing employment growth, the risk of defaulting sub-prime mortgages, Greenspan and several other factors will influence the decision. Stay tuned.

And speaking of Greenspan, here's an excerpt from his new book entitled THE AGE OF TURBULENCE
Adventures in a New World

I made no secret of my view that President Bush ought to reject a few bills. It would send a message to Congress that it did not have carte blanche on spending. But the answer I received from a senior White House official was that the president didn't want to challenge House Speaker Dennis Hastert. 'He thinks he can control him better by not antagonizing him,' the official said… And indeed not exercising veto power became a hallmark of the Bush Presidency: In his first six years in the White House, he did not throw out a single bill. This was without historical precedent. Johnson, Nixon, Carter, George H.W. Bush, Clinton-they all had vetoed an average of dozens of bills. And Jerry Ford had vetoed everything in sight-more than sixty bills in less than three years. This enabled him, even though faced with large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, to assert a great deal of power and steer the lawmakers in directions he thought important. To my mind, Bush's collaborate-don't-confront approach was a major mistake-it cost the nation a check-and-balance mechanism essential to fiscal discipline. Pp. 234-235

Companies moving in after hours trading in reaction to earnings: Trading Up: ADBE +4.2%; FREE +1.3%... Trading Up: TLG +28.4% (agrees to be acquired by Mainfreight Limited); MOVE +13.6% (authorizes $50 mln stock repurchase program); NGEN +8.6% (undertakes evaluation of strategic alternatives for microarray business); GMTC +2.9% (announces European wireless gaming); UTSI +2.6% (provides update on independent investigation of sales contracts in China); RTI +2.0% (announces additional long-term Airbus contract valued in excess of $1.1 bln over eleven-year term); TGEN +1.6% (reports on recombinant DNA advisory committee review of its phase 1/2 trial of tgAAC94 for rheumatoid arthritis); MSSR +1.4% (announces entrance into Cleveland market); PRX +1.3% (Wockhardt, Lupin in race for US firm- The Times of India.com)... Trading Down: NFI -18.5% (will not distribute REIT dividend after market changes make new issue of preferred securities not possible); MEND -14.1% (lowers FY08 revs below consensus); ETFC -5.1% (announces strategic plan, exits wholesale mortgage business, guides lower); HF -1.2% (secures $200 mln credit facility for Abacus Capital Group).