Chuck has been detained, so I’ll make a few notes here.  We all know he gives much more colorful wrap-ups and I’m sure he will post regarding today’s action as soon as possible.

The market reaction today was a continuing vote of no-confidence.  The XLF (financials) rose to the trendline and pulled back hard.  The futures overnight are dropping and the dollar is up a little at 75.26.  S&P has stated that they expect more losses from some large European banks.  According to a report by Bloomberg, S&P has lowered or may cut ratings on $534 Billion of residential mortgage securities and collateralized debt obligations.

I’m a little more worried about our own financial institutions.  Here’s a link you may find interesting, and I’m still researching the full implications of this:  http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/Current/  and this: http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2008/fil08002.html

According to ICI (Investment Company Institute) US Muni Bond funds saw December net outflows of $3.48 Billion compared to November outflow of $1.12 Billion.

I know some of you hold this stock, so I’m posting their earnings.  Altria Group (MO) reported earnings for Q4 of $1.00/share vs $0.97 est., revenues were $9.3B vs $9.19B est.  They announced they will spin-off an international unit by  3/28/08, and there will be a $7.5B post-spin off buyback program over the next two years.  The post spin-off dividend is to be $1.16/share annually.

More later.