Update #3/ Week of 11/22/2010 NEWS FROM ARA MELKONIANS

Good Morning Everyone...We wrote last Friday about the stock market needing to generate even a small rally to finish the week in positive territory, and such was the case! The Dow rallied 22 points on Friday to end the week with an 11 point gain for the 5 day trading session . . . almost seems like a plot there somehow. However, on a happy note, credit markets did settle down a bit on Friday and we have a little rally going on this morning in Treasuries. Let's hope that continues!

The relative calm in commodities and credit markets may be a byproduct of news out of Ireland over the weekend which announced that it has applied for financial aid from the European Union. Specifics of the plan have yet to be hammered out, but the news initially spurred the euro higher and cut down the dollar. However, that trend has reversed itself now with the realization that the EU is still in financial instability. As such, the dollar has regained strength and has sent stocks into an opening slide downward.

We learned from CoreLogic over the weekend that their market index for home prices in the US has declined for two months in a row. This comes after a 7 month string of increases in the first 7 months of the year. The latest CoreLongic HPI shows that national home prices declined 2.79% in Sept 2010 compared to Sept 2009. This follows a 1.08% drop year-over-year in August. All but 7 states saw a decline in residential property in September. This is obviously the result of a languishing job market, the cessation of the gov't tax incentive and the foreclosure mess in which we find ourselves. This trend is not likely to improve any time soon.

There are no corporate reports due out today, and no economic news releases are expected. However, data will pick up in the next couple days as revisions to tQ3 GDP are released, data on existing home sales, durable goods orders, personal income and spending, weekly jobless claims, and new home sales are posted. Look for lots of action in the next couple days before markets close on Thursday for the holiday.

I hope all of you have terrific Monday and a very profitable and productive week!