Economists have to worry that if consumer sentiment remains depressed, spending could follow that down and you could have a much weaker outcome (in terms of economic growth.

Clearly Greenspan's luster has dimmed, and there's this worry that he's fired a lot of bullets and the bullets he has left won't do any good.

We fully expect sentiment to drop sharply, putting in place the conditions for much softer consumer spending numbers.

[Yet while sentiments are that small-caps will rise as long as large-caps remain strong, some on Wall Street believe the bull market has a limited outlook for the near term.] Let me put it this way, the market is more likely to be down 10 percent (in a few months) than up 10 percent, ... But I don't look for any big correction.

One cannot deny that Katrina ironically may have had a positive effect on this index because of the big surge in orders.

That, combined with no job growth, makes it harder and harder for the Fed to pull the trigger in an election year.