Quite the rally today, huh?  If you weren’t in it don’t be upset.  We’ll have a full summary tonight of where we are and what happened today.  I know I’ll sound like a bear, but I’m just not excited about this rally.  If it is to continue, we’ll participate, but we will let you know.

I listened to the MBIA (MBI) conference call today.  4, count ‘em 4 (four) hours!!  There will be a lot of talk about what they said, but here’s a little something I took away from the call:   Bore everybody to death with a bunch of cheerleading and repetition, occasionally answering a pertinent question with an honest answer, refuse to answer other pertinent questions, and by the time it’s over maybe everyone will just remember the cheerleading.  Now aren’t you glad you weren’t dumb enough to listen for four freaking hours?!  The NY Fed is said to be ‘in close touch’ with NY Insurance commish Dinallo, but only to advise.  Didn’t we just hear these bond insurers needed a bailout?  Now everything appears to be hunky-dory, as NY Governor Spitzer says he feels they are making good progress with bond insurer stabilization plan.  Well, ’scuse me, Gov, but according to MBIA’s conference call, they don’t need any stabilizing help from anybody.

Yesterday Fitch downgraded FGIC, and today S&P removed AAA rating from 29 FGIC issues.  S&P put MBIA and XLCA on negative watch.

Google (GOOG) missed on their earnings numbers:  Q4 $4.43 v $4.44est., Revenues $3.39B v $3.45B est.  Shares are trading down after hours by 31.00, conference call later.

I’ve got to run, but there will be more posts later.  A lot of information to go over and digest.