I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been cursing at the screen every time one of these #@&*ing Iraq rumors (or actual news for that matter) surfaces:
(from Briefing.com) 14:53 ET Floor Talk : In speaking with institutional desks today, traders expressing frustration that macro events such as Saddam rumors are influencing intraday action as much, if not more, than fundamentals. The feedback on the Confidence numbers today was generally negative. With many market followers seemingly looking past this data, traders now focusing on the next piece of incremental data in the form of Thursday's Employment numbers. The short covering witnessed intraday contributed to the upside reversal in the Indices, but in talking with market makers during the latter half of the day hearing that while pockets of strength are being seen in the market, there also seems to be interest in using the intraday pop to buy puts in the QQQs.
Yes, what should the Iraq situation have to do with the markets? Unfortunately, markets just seem driven by the current mood swings of a particularly naive class of human for whom the farther away the news, the more seriously it is taken... Trudy the Monkey