G20 etc.

Futures were flat when I went to bed last night, but have since weakened significantly on no new news. Have you ever noticed that the financial media blames stretched valuation every time stocks inexplicably decline, but never mention it otherwise?

Blomberg is the worst at this.

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There is lots of anticipation around the G20 Finance meeting this week. I'm not sure what silver bullets they have that they didn't use during last years's crisis.

Sven: "Hey Mario, did you hear that Lehman failed last night?"

Mario: "Yes. It's bad."

Sven: "Our banks have a lot of exposure."

Mario: "Ours too."

Sven: "I have a plan to save our banks and restart our economy while creating jobs at the same time."

Mario: "Shhhhh. Are you crazy? You should keep that under your hat until the G20 Meeting."

****

Alcatel Lucent (ALU) is in the WSJ denying that it is looking at bids from a Chinese suitor, likely ZTE or Huawei.

Oh really?

On the plus side, ALU has been losing money since 2005. I'm sure they'd like an out.

On the negative side, ALU owns a ton of technology and patents that are very important in defense applications, thanks to its legacy position in Bell Labs.