Holiday-Weekend Hangover

Good morning. The market is suffering from a little bit of holiday-weekend hangover as investors try to get back to work and have little news to focus on at the start. Other than some downgrades by Merrill Lynch (their economists see a 65% chance of a U.S. recession), investors are awaiting reports on Construction Spending and the ISM Manufacturing Index at 10:AM and reports on motor vehicle sales. With the Fed scheduled to meet just two weeks away (September 18th) the market will be held captive to how the market thinks the Fed will react to the data we see this week.

Premarket gainers::  ASTSF, LOCM, LEND, CREE, LEAP, METH, PRLS, HOKU, TMA, TGIC, HLTH, CFSG, MPEL, NVEC, TRCA, OVTI, VDSI, YHOO, ASML, OTEX, NFLX, DSX, SSTR, CWTR, SIGM, and ZOLT.

Premarket losers::  SMOD, RIMM, BPHX, DLIA, FUJI, WIND, CBSS, CHINA, OMAB, EBAY, and LVLT.

The bounce from the August lows suggest that investors have faith that the credit crisis will be contained and the economy will hold strong. Helping convince them will be stronger than expected reports on the economy this week along with increased confidence that previously announced merger deals will get done. While historically September tends to be a difficult month for the bulls, weakness in the market tends to occur in the second half of the month versus the first couple of weeks. Let's make it a profitable month!