The Dow rebounded 288 points today, after the huge dump of 512, yesterday. This is good for everyone, but the overall level is still lower than it was in 1997. The upswing was still only a little more than half of yesterday's catastrophic plunge. NASDAQ was up a bit, also. Could the President's short speech from Russia, preaching a linkage between the economies of both of our countries, have stopped what looked like a much bigger rally?

Come home Mr. President. Don't make any more gifts of our tax dollars, to the Russian Mafia. Don't ally yourself too much with Boris Yelsin, as he is definately on the way out. The IMF bucks went to the rich and not the needy Russian public, who has to feed their families in a country where a wheel barrel of Rubles, barely buys a Big Mac.

The high tech stocks like Microsoft, Dell, and Intel; made very pitiful rebounds indeed. Many stocks remained almost unchanged, and it wasn't the big losers that recovered a bunch of ground. Phantom internet stocks like Yahoo and Amazon.com remain at the low levels, that they are deserved to be at. Netscape was arificially inflated and stays in its deflated position, rightly so. The majority of gains came across the board, as the volume of trading was at record highs.

Could yesterday's plunge have been avoided, had the President chosen not to skip town?

I believe the answer to this question is, yes. He could have delayed his departure until after the market closed, and pledged that he wouldn't flush any more of our dollars down the Russian toilet.

I hope Clinton finally addresses the political problems in North Korea and Iraq; and the economic problems in Indonesia, Japan, and Russia. The market is teetering, and ready to go either way, tomorrow!

- Bongo ( fingers crossed for tomorrow... )