Weekly Market Commentary:

Lately, the residing fear "du jour" keeps looking more and more like that early 80's stock market-killer "stagflation." It's still a whisper word that no one appears willing to admit. Sub-prime mortgage concerns continue to raise fears of an economic slowdown. Add an inflation rate 07% higher than the Fed's desired target range (1-2%); and that's kept interest rates higher than they probably should be. Face it, if most people can still find a new car loan at a 0.0%, why isn't anyone on the evening news or the "new" Congress questioning why the Fed has pushed rates 17 times to the current rate of 5.25%?

The greatest irony (in our humble view) is that the people experiencing the actual problem making sub-prime loan payments certainly aren't the same people selling stocks off these last several weeks. At the end of the day, we should probably just thank the major media outlets for doing their darn best each and every day (and night) to make sure Americans feel as downtrodden as possible about everything from the war in Iraq to the temperature of the planet and everything in between. Not us!

OTC Digest Members and anyone else who happen upon this page should fear not. Just because markets do occasionally correct, one place you can always rely on for great information is our Focus List Service. It provides anyone who wants to invest seriously with great stock investment ideas and an easy approach to building equity in stocks. At last count, 11 Focus List companies have appreciated 100% or more since the service started. Remember, even though it's the stock market, it's more a "market of stocks." Fortunately, they don't all go up or down at the same time. That's the best part of what we do. You can always stay one step ahead of the game with the OTC Digest. Here's what happened last week.

The second biggest drop of the year pushed the Dow Jones Industrials down 1.4% on the week, to a close of 12,110 and that off of a midweek bounce below 12.000. The S+P 500 dropped for the third time in four weeks with a 1.1% retreat to a 1,387 finish. The Nasdaq Composite lost just 0.6% or 15 points to close at 2,373, while the Russell 2000 gave up 0.8% ending the week's trade at 779. For the week ahead...

The housing market index is expected to decline to 38 this month from 40 in February and is reported on Monday. On Tuesday, housing starts are expected to rise 2.5% to a seasonally adjusted pace of 1.45 million in February after January's unexpectedly big decline. However, the week's biggest potential market-moving day is again on Wednesday. That's when monetary policy-makers from the Federal Reserve are expected to continue to be more concerned about inflation than the very economic slowdown tight money policy is causing. If, as expected, rates hold where they are right now, that's not big news. A rate cut anyone? Don't count on it, but there is one thing you should do.

Stay tuned!