Stocks Take a Little Ride; Fraudclosure-gate Shuffled to Back Burner

With mid-term elections now less than a week away, politicians are in no mood to deal with serious issues (are they ever?) like the ongoing fraud in bank foreclosures that began to unravel three weeks ago and has continued to gather momentum.

That issue has been shelved for the time being by politicians and the bankers at the heart of the scandal. In fact, Bank of America was one of the top-performing stocks of the day, on a day in which the major indices took a serious turn to the downside only to be salvaged by furious buying into the close.

Silly me. I thought for a moment that the markets weren't rigged and losses could occur. Apparently, and almost assuredly, this is not the case. Nobody wants to talk about mortgage put-backs and fraudulent foreclosures. That's so... last weekend. We all need to pay attention to the events of next week - the elections and the FOMC meeting, and of course, how could I forget, Halloween is Sunday.

That's the level to which the markets and politics have sank. Bad news is simply not acceptable over any extended period. Breaking the law will be tolerated, as evidenced by the disappearance of our US Attorney General, Eric Holder, who has chosen the path of least resistance: prosecutions for nobody, no matter what, and especially if you're rich, well-connected or a complete snobbish troll.

As for stocks, they hit their lows of the day just after 1:00 pm ET, but then began a miraculous comeback on no news - as usual - to shave a nearly 150 point loss on the Dow down to just over 40 by the close. Nice job, fellas. We're sure there's a special place in hell for the cheating rats who now completely control Wall Street and their HFT computers, though most of us out here in teaming-masses-land would prefer to see you get your just desserts here on earth, as in a nice long prison sentence in a federal penitentiary and clawbacks and restitution of the billions you've strangled away from the US public.

But I digress. These titans of financial ingenuity, the Blankfeins, Dimons and Pandits of the world, they've brought us such wonders as 17% real unemployment, $3.00 per gallon gas and a complete rejection - at the federal level - of the constitution and the rule of law. We should thank them as they are whisked away in their limousines, for they have done the nation a great service: they robbed it blind.

Oops, there I go again; trying really hard to be objective, though it's difficult in the face of such overt criminality. Thankfully, I am not alone in my outrge. At least there is William K. Black, who sent thousands of dirty bankers to jail in the S&L scandal. He thinks Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner should be fired, many bankers indicted and the twelve largest financial institutions put under federal receivership.

Is anybody listening?

Dow 11,126.28, -43.18 (0.39%)
NASDAQ 2,503.26, +5.97 (0.24%)
S&P 500 1,182.45, -3.19 (0.27%)
NYSE Composite 7,480.87, -49.93 (0.66%)

Losers dominated winners, 4180-2216, a nearly 2-1 margin. New highs came in at 294, to just 54 new lows. Volume was a bit stronger than previous days this week and last, though it was still not at levels normal in the mid-00s, prior to the financial meltdown of 2008.

NASDAQ Volume 2,027,671,625
NYSE Volume 4,904,105,500

Commodities trended lower on the day, with oil losing 61 cents, to $81.94. Gold fell $16.00, to $1,322.60, while silver shed 43 cents, to close at $23.40 the ounce.