Data tables on the right hand side may be the way to go. You could contact them directly and ask for more historic data.

The latest fall in response to the downgrades either means people are panicking over old news or that they didnt want to believe that old news and were waiting for the individual anaylsts to confirm the bad news.

Do you know where I could find the durable goods consumption index in the US?

Payroll data out tonight will sell it for me. Once I see how the payroll data we’ll have more idea about how strong consumer spending will remain, as the US acts pretty much like a ‘closed economy’ the movement in consumer spending will be danged important.

Notice that people realised that the Fed took a neutral tone on yesturdays meeting, making the DOW fall hard.

I cant help feeling that the credit downgrades are simply repeating information we already have! Why are they a surprise to anyone?

Exxon is struggling to make money. Oil is approaching $100/b and Exxon is falling short of profit expectations. WTF?

I still feel that investors are willing to take on a significant amount of risk, and I can’t see that lasting in the long run. However, if growth keeps on sitting this strong there shouldn’t be any problem.

I’d like to see how inflation is panning out across the world, that could well be next years issue

One thing to watch for is the default rates for the September and October 2006 vintage of sub-prime mortgages. This could be another shock to the system.

Could this rate reduction be preemptive? Is there much point in that at all?