IBM is in discussion with Sun (JAVA) about a potentail acquisition in a 7Bn deal. This would mean a near 100% premium to Sun's ydays close. I personally think this is not going to bode well for IBM or for the combined compnay. This deal came through on the heels of the announcement made by CSCO the other day about their entry into the server market. Currently the server market is dominated by IBM, and HP. CSCO's (a supplier of blades, swiches to IBM and HP servers) entry into the server market would pose a threat to the market share on IBM. Lets hopw its not another S-Nextel, or Alcatel-lucent deal. 

Unemployment in the UK crossed the 2 million mark and the unemployment rate hit 6.5%, its highest rate in more than 11 years. The number of people claiming unemployment benefit rose by 138,400 to 1.39 million. This was the largest monthly increase since records began in 1971.

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The FOMC has come in with no rate change as we had expected.  When it is already at a near-zero rate policy, there was no other outcome.  The Fed Funds Target Rate was left at 0.00% to 0.25%, and the discount rate was left at 0.50%. The Fed will buy an additional $750 billion worth of agency mortgage backed securities.  It will also purchase an additional $100 billion in agency debt instruments, and it will purchase an additional $300 billion worth of long-term Treasury securities over next 6-months. The magnitude here is that the mortgage backed security purchases are now more than doubled, and the unconventioanl purchase of Treasuries, which would force the mortgage rates lower. Hopefully, this would stop the ever receding housing market. Treasury yields in 10-year and 3-year notes have tanked as bond prices have gone up.  The dollar has also tanked, and gold is up higher as a result. I guess the follwing days trades would be 'inflation' centered. Gold would continue to go up, may touch the 1000 levels again.. TBT and PST would be good buys too.. no downside by quite an upside. 

Tomorrow's trade - BUY BUY BUY, commodities, gold, stocks, bonds. .. SELL SELL SELL Dollar,