The trade winds are swirling hard in Cavalier Land. This weekend, speculation intensified that the Cavaliers would indeed make a major trade, and Phoenix Suns big man Amar’e Stoudemire was at the center of most of those rumors.
Adding a guy like Stoudemire to this team is scary on paper. He just turned 27, has already been to five All-Star games, and he’s averaging over 21 points a game and just under 9 rebounds. With the double teams that LeBron and Shaq draw, and the three point shooters we have (best in the league shooting the three), it’s terrifying to ponder the havoc Amar’e could wreak here on the north coast. Already the favorites to win it all, if the Cavs could pull this trade off, they would have an incredible chance to end this city’s 46 year pro sports championship drought.
Amar’e is more of a risk/reward proposition than the other guys (Antawn Jamison, Troy Murphy) are rumored to be interested in … mostly due to the fact that he can opt out of his deal at year end and become a free agent. But it appears this is a risk Danny Ferry is willing to take, hoping that the Cavs can win a title, resign Amar’e, and then resign LeBron … pairing two of the league’s young superstars in the hopes of bringing a string of championships here to C-Town.
I do see the Suns trading Amar’e. And I do believe the Cavaliers will make a trade before Thursday’s deadline. It may not be Amar’e to Cleveland though. The Cavs allegedly have the same deal (Hickson, Ilgauskas, and potentially a draft pick) on the table with the Wizards for Jamison and with the Pacers for Murphy if the trade with Phoenix falls through. Me personally, I think Amar’e lands in Miami, who is desperate to make a big splash deal to ensure Dwayne Wade stays there. And I think the Cavs will end up with Jamison, who would be a fantastic fit here.
We may know today. Phoenix has a game tonight and seems eager to get this distraction behind them. Exciting times Cavs fans.
With most of the upper half of America snowed in their homes, the Winter Olympics got big time ratings this weekend. After the ominous beginning that saw a Georgian luger perish during a practice run Friday morning, it was a pretty compelling weekend of action.
Amongst the highlights? America taking the medal lead with 8 after the first three days of action, including gold medals in snowboarding (Seth Wescott) and freestyle skiing (Hannah Kearney), a dramatic silver/bronze finish in the short track speed skating event for Apollo Anton Ohno and J.R. Celski, and a bronze medal from Bode Miller … who successfully bounced back from a huge disappointment four years ago when he came in as the favorite and partied away his chances to follow up his stellar efforts in Salt Lake in 2002.
And Vancouver … what a beautiful city. One of the top five places I’ve never been to that I’d love to visit along with Italy, Hawaii, Boston, and Seattle. The aerial shots have been stunning. Some of the shots of that city are as made for HDTV as Lindsey Vonn is.
Can’t wait for the men’s hockey, which starts today. And the aforementioned Ms. Vonn’s events.
Quote of the day …
“I play very well with Shaq. I averaged more points last year with him and played better defense. You guys can stop saying we don’t play well together.” ~ Amar’e Stoudemire, last night on Twitter
Market …
It was a much needed long weekend for the financial markets. There’s just been so much to digest over the past month. The Bernanke reconfirmation, a Fed meeting, Fed speculation, a slew of potential policy changes for the Federal government on banking and housing, all this talk about the deficit and unemployment, and a non-stop stream of economic indicators and fourth quarter earnings releases and 2010 projections from American companies.
After peaking at about 10,800 on Jan 19, the Dow went in the tank … falling 1,000 points before rallying back a little last week to end the week at right around 10,100.
One of those weekends, I had my Blackberry shut off for a big chunk of it. Enough is enough sometimes. Just as a Blackberry needs recharged, the mental batteries need it as well from time to time.
So what’s going on this week? It’s a short week, but another busy one. Let’s start with the economic news that will be released:
Today – NY Empire State Index
Tomorrow – Housing Starts, Import Prices, Industrial Production, and the release of the minutes from the last Fed Meeting
Thursday – Jobless claims, PPI (Producer Price Index), Leading Indicators, and the Philly Fed Index
Friday – CPI (Consumer Price Index)
The big ones are PPI and CPI, the two main gauges of inflation here domestically. While inflation is believed to be well in check, PPI and CPI are always big releases for the fixed income investment worlds of mortgages and treasuries, as inflation eats away at their fixed returns. And first time weekly jobless claims, which are released every Thursday morning at 8:30 AM EST, have really been in the spotlight as of late due to the rampant unemployment problem here in America. The report is seen as foreshadowing of the immediate future on employment, which the markets are trading hard off of right now.
Earnings reports over the past month have mostly been better than expected, but have not been strong enough to overcome overseas concerns about growing debt problems in countries like Greece, Portugal, and Spain. With investor concerns about Greek debt easing somewhat, the focus might start to return to domestic growth. Helping matters early this week were very strong earnings reports this morning from food giant Kraft and retail giant Abercrombie & Fitch.
News …
~ Youngstown Area to Get 350 New Jobs When Steel Tube Plant Opens
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/02/youngstown_area_to_get_350_mor.html
~ Barclays 4Q Profit Soars Eight Fold on Unit Sale
~ Lenders Fret as Dubai’s Real Estate Situation Worsens
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35407245
~ Blackberry Maker RIM Warns of Bandwidth Crisis
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35417684
~ Stock Futures Stronger After Three Day Break
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