Mr. Market got the 50 bps he wanted and after a brief 250 point run up in the Dow gave just about all of it back. The excuse du jour was that its the traders fault blamed a Fitch downgrade of FGIC or WIlliam Ackman's comments that MBIA and Ambac each had much bigger than reported losses. Maybe it was the report that S&P may lower or cut $534 billion of subprime debt. Regardless the gains were all spit up by the bell. Question: Will markets rally on this cut or is the Fed pushing on a string? Y'all discuss this while I go out for a few drinks. (play nice) ~~~ What say ye?

No wonder the US markets were flat yesterday despite another half point cut by Bernanke. The folks who are now being scorched themselves. Reagan's trickle down may have never worked but in this case it's working. The big question is where is this going and who will be next? Even with countless financial wizards and number crunchers Wall Street has no idea. That's why they make the big bucks and dictate policy including the Fed. Like other bond insurers FGIC initially focused on municipal bond deals but ventured into riskier debt securities to boost returns. Massive defaults on U.S. subprime mortgages battered the credit quality of these products increasing the capital bond insurers needed for an ``AAA'' rating. Losing a Triple A rating could be devastating for the bond insurers preventing them from drumming up new clients and possibly forcing them out of business. Ambac has already received a downgrade from rating agency Fitch but has so far been spared by Standard & Poor's and Moody's. MBIA hasn't been downgraded.