Wall Street players had nothing to really spook them nor excite them and the market went nowhere, but in keeping with the current consensus of thinking, it fell, slightly. Story hunters focused on Obama’s planned financial system regulations and some ‘smart’ analyst thought investors were afraid that the new rules would hit bank profits. Well, der!

That is the point but the short-term hit to banks behaving badly will be made up for when in the long-term they don’t nearly disappear down the financial system’s plughole.

In keeping with the perceived lack of panic and even anxiety, the Volatility Index or VIX or ‘fear index’, fell 4% to 31.47.

On the economic front, inflation came in at an ignorable 0.1% and it will pay to stop worrying about inflation for at least one, maybe two years. However, it will make a comeback when the global economy is growing strongly again.

By the way the IMF, who I often criticize for faulty forecasting, recently upgraded its outlook for the global economy for 2010 from 1.9% made in April to now running with 2.4%. I only hope that they are right but if they are wrong, they are wrong to the downside.

I like the strength of the Nasdaq and tech stocks as a good sign for the US economy and the fact consumer stocks are rising on better sales figures from retail outlets.

Oil closed at $US71.03 a barrel while the Oz dollar is up a little to 79.46 US cents.

By the way, the latest Sensis survey of SMEs found there was record rebound in confidence, which is a great sign for the economy.