The Fed picked the dumbest course of action among its options regarding interest rates and future bias: it left rates unchanged and announced an upward bias to raise rates later. The FOMC should have either raised rates, period, or, in my opinion, done nothing. Why the lily-livered wobbling? Perhaps because the calendar was chock-full of monster economic indicators for the rest of the week, and they were too chicken to raise in advance of what could portend a cooling economy. The employment numbers did end up showing weakness, with payrolls down, but that was courtesy of Hurricane Floyd. Factory orders surprised on the upside and consumer credit contined explosive growth.

So put up your feet and ignore the market for the rest of the year, unless you have cash to take advantage of buying opportunities. It could be a stinky ride, reeking of continued interest-rate worries coupled with Y2K-uncertainty agonies. This in spite of the fact that corporate earnings look like they're going to be good, good, good. (The Nasdaq index certainly seems to think so.)

At least we have the holidays and skiing season to look forward to.