INITIAL LOOK

The markets open green with about 2,000 more winners than losers. Big Cap tech continues to lag as the SMH is up seventeen cents and the QQQQ is up twenty cents. The Russell 2K is outdoing the SPY by .74% to .64% so they are neck and neck. Other sectors acting well include the brokers, oils and metals. Lagging sectors include the internets HHH (-1%) as GOOG and EBAY get price target reductions from Mother Merrill and the interest rate sectors including REITS and Homies.

Listening to Don Evans this morning on the question of Executive Compensation at XOM was quite comical as Don mentioned that XOM has a great board and the stock had great performance over the past 20 years. Don, do you remember Lee Raymond doubting the price rise in crude and repeatedly calling for the price to fall back to $28 as they saw no supply demand imbalance. What would Lee's compensation have been if he would have had a clue about the price of crude and where would the XOM price be if Lee had a clue as to the direction of the price. And for the doubters, pull up a chart of XOM vs VLO XTO FTO etc. Comical just comical.