03/12/2009

Retail Sales for February fell 0.1%, however, this was a bit better than expectations
of a 0.5% drop. Adding to the positive tone was a significant upward revision to
January's Report to 1.8% from a previous number of 1%. Retail Sales is a very
volatile Report on a month to month basis, but the last couple of readings are
encouraging - perhaps showing some signs of economic stabilization.
One area of the economy that continues to struggle is the Job market...654,000
filed for Initial Jobless claims this past week, a bit more than expectations of
644,000. The number of people receiving unemployment checks in the week
ending Feb. 28 rose 193,000 to a record 5.32 Million. Let's hope that this economic
stimulus plan gets to work and starts boosting confidence and creating jobs, so that
this negative jobs trend can reverse.
For the better part of the last nine months Mark to Market was seldom discussed
except within our family of subscribers here at MMG. But now it is being discussed
like a hit Broadway show. And today at 10am, the curtains open on what could be
an extremely important hearing on mark-to-market accounting. As you know, we
have been discussing this issue forever and have provided plenty of materials on
the site to help you better understand how it has devastated the financial world.
Today, the SEC's Chief Accountant, the FASBs Chairman and the Deputy
Comptroller for Regulatory Policy in the Treasury Department are expected to
testify in front of the House Financial Services committee on mark to market. We
will be watching this very closely, as this will no doubt have a dramatic effect on
market trading today and well into the future. You can look to the Market News
section of the MMG website for updates throughout the hearing.
Mortgage Bonds have been able to hold above the 25-day Moving Average. We
will continue to float and watch carefully as sparks could fly during today's Mark to
Market hearing.