And the current atmosphere is presenting many buying ops.

Dennis, thanks for taking the edge off, a laugh goes a long way on a day like today.

Spent the wad last week picking up what i figured were great pickins....lol, Kicking myself for not having the "Buffet" thought to NOT buy anything until the sea of RED tide comes in...which it did this am in spades.

will the tide persist in the am tomorrow?? Is the worst yet to come?? What will Monday bring us?

Really enjoying the forum as of late.

RE: the tourney, on SAT i wore my ol' ROF golf shirt but sadly did not golf, i did however raise several beers in honor of the swingers, sounds like a great time was had by all. Have a gander at this:

21 September 2011, 4:39 p.m.
By Debbie Carlson
Of Kitco News
http://www.kitco.com/

In a move that was widely expected by financial markets, the Federal Reserve bought $400 billion in longer-dated U.S. government maturities and sold an equal amount of shorter-dated maturities, twisting the yield curve, but market watchers said the long-term impact will be muted.

That’s in part, many said, because the action by the Fed was likely priced into markets well ahead of the actual action. Further, they added, it doesn’t solve the underlying problem of a lack of lending by banks. Many pointed out the dissension by three of the governors adds to the uncertainty of the markets.

The Fed, after its two-day Federal Open Market Committee, revived a policy decision from the 1960s which was nicknamed “Operation Twist” where it would flip the yield curve. By buying longer-dated securities, in this case, 6 to 30 years out, and selling maturities of 3 years and younger, it would squash the yield for farther-out Treasurys and lift the yield for the nearer Treasurys. The program runs until June 2012. The Fed said it will also reinvest the principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-based securities into agency mortgage-backed securities.

The knee-jerk reaction pressured gold and equities prices, while lifting the price of Treasurys. That meant yields on longer-dated Treasurys sunk in response. The U.S. dollar rose.

Several analysts pointed out that the break in equities and other markets came not only because the duration purchases were worked in, but because there was no quantitative easing to accompany the decision.

“There was a very minority view that we’d see a QE3 type program but we didn’t. Plus you had the three Fed bank presidents citing the risk of inflation down the road, which is the first time in (decades) there was so much dissension. That’s also negative,” said Alan Bush, senior financial futures analyst at Archer Financial Services.

The three Fed presidents that dissented are known hawks - Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, Narayana Kocherlakota of Minneapolis and Charles Plosser of Philadelphia, so the dissent isn’t completely shocking, but does underline the friction at the Fed.

Bill O’Neill, principal at LOGIC Advisors, said this move will continue to make investors gun-shy of riskier assets and ultimately will be bullish for gold. The move is bearish for base metals since it does not do enough to stimulate economic demand which is necessary for those industrial metals.

“It wasn’t dynamic enough, it doesn’t provide any long-term stimulus,” he said. “I view it as neutral to negative. It needed a shorter duration, and a larger size to be effective. We totally expected the Twist, so it was built into expectations. The pie was already baked.”
Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at MFGlobal, said although gold prices slid in the late U.S. afternoon trade, ultimately it will be bullish for gold and silver as investors will continue to seek those metals as safe havens.

DOLLAR RISES ON FED MOVE

Bush said the move by the Fed helps to raise short-term interest rates – but doesn’t change the official Federal Funds rate which was retained at a float between zero and 25 basis points – so that helps the dollar.

What impact that has on commodities is up for debate. Haberkorn said it shouldn’t pressure gold, citing “that correlation is gone,” but Ken Morrison, founder and editor of online newsletter Morrison on Markets said it might have some impact, depending on what happens.

The dollar rallied right into recent resistance, Morrison said. While he thinks the dollar will fail to rise again, but if it breaks through 78 on the Dollar Index, “it’s headwinds for commodities.” Considering exports, especially agricultural exports like soybeans and corn, are one of the few bright spots for the U.S., this could put a pinch on export demand and could hurt the equity prices of exporting companies, he said.

Market watchers pointed out the lowering of long-term interest rates has only a minimal impact since long-term rates are near record lows anyway. Morrison said the move could help housing to a degree. “The Fed's move arguably will do more to bolster housing than any monetary stimulus the Fed has done thus far... in view of the improvement we saw today in the year-over-year existing home sales, lower rates should continue to encourage interest in homes especially by first-time buyers who don't have a home they need to sell in order to buy another,” he said.

That doesn’t help the nearly 25% of U.S. homeowners who are “underwater” or who owe more on their homes than what they are worth, he added. “They simply don't have the cash to make up the difference necessary to qualify for a loan. You could have a zero rate and still not solve that problem,” he said.

O’Neill said the action by the Fed “wasn’t particularly creative” in solving the underlying problems for the U.S. As many market watchers said, what must happen is to have the banks start lending, which they are not doing. That’s why some were surprised a move like lowering the interest rate on excess reserves. That may have nudged some banks into lending. But some suggested that not doing so might be a sign of other problems with the banks.

Concerns over banks’ health was highlighted Wednesday when ahead of the Fed’s announcement Moody’s Analytics downgraded several bank credit ratings including Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C).