Our shortest-term measures continue to wallow around in neutral territory, and they still show no clear edge in either direction.

The more volume going into up issues, the lower the TRIN is going to be. There has been some buying pressure.

The true historic extremes we saw over the past week or so lent a lot of credence to the likelihood of higher prices over the next 60 to 90 days and beyond. But I am very troubled by the inability of the broader market to rally in the face of these readings.

Seemingly excessive optimism from wrong-way odd lot traders suggests we need a breather here.

It's clear that McDonald would like another term as chairman. But he would have no supporters at all in federal cabinet except John Howard. He is hated and detested. As far as Liberals go, the major cultural war of the past 20 years has been against the Left of the ABC. And John Howard has failed to fight it. Donald McDonald has become our equivalent of John Kerr, and John Howard should have known he'd turn on us.

Tempting though it is to take protectionist measures, in the long term the only way forward is for Europe to invest rather than protect,