December 1st Edition

Good Morning All,

Markets will spend a good part of the day giving up some of last week's gains. This activity should evolve into an interesting process that sets up a turnaround Tuesday leading the way to significant early December gains. I would expect that the pre Christmas week will once again be typified by tax loss selling even though it would appear that many capitulators have already accomplished this task. If things go according to Hoyle, (and they rarely do), then a very opportune reentry into markets, particularly among small and mid caps, will take place during the pre year end holiday week. This upward movement will likely exhaust itself by inauguration day but it will be large in percentage gains.

The world as we now know it, appears to be experiencing a leadership gap, beginning with the lame duck Presidency of George Bush and extending through to the inaction of Germany's Angela Merkel and our own out of touch Cabinet in Ottawa. This vacuum of doingness, yes I know it is not a word, has lately been compounded by other world events from India to Thailand and the Gulf of Aden where a motley group of pirates continues to hold powerful nations and their interests at bay. These are each headline events just as the other major ongoing African wars appear not to be, but pay proper heed to the short term nature of their impact and look forward to a more structured and interactive globe just down the road. Meanwhile everything must be done to prevent any further deterioration in Pakistan-India relations. This, not Iraq, not Iran, not Israel is and always has been the world's most important and most dangerous potential battlefield. That's a lot of..... I's......for one sentence, so let's add another while we are on a roll.... Ignatieff....?

I have no idea what Harper has been thinking, so I must believe that he hasn't been.