Well, it would appear that every time I take more than a day's break, the markets actually "do something"! I guess I should get out more often - a great excuse to do some more fishing. And I thought only Greenspan could singlehandedly move markets....megalomania - moi? I can hardly even spell it.

Anyway, it was "interesting" to visit the West of Ireland for a couple of days or so - and to plagiarise that other great plagiarist Mr Bryson, it was an especial privilege to have been there during their National Litter Week. Great people, great shame about the unbelievable mess almost everywhere you look - but at least the fishing was good.

Back to work then, and I see Cadburys are planning to "unwrap a £5bn sweetener" by returning capital to shareholders after they sell their US drinks division (to private equity) in the summer. This will seemingly "wipe out debts and strengthen their balance sheet" enabling them to raise £10bn to "expand". So you go from current debts of £3bn, to no debt at all, and then to borrowings of £10bn, and that has strengthened your balance sheet? Hmmm, I must have missed something surely. Pay more attention, Williams!

And Asda are looking at opening 300 new "Home Stores" just as the government intends to "relax" out of town planning restrictions - good timing there, but possibly in terms of the overall economy, maybe it will prove in fact to have been pretty bad timing - we'll see - the aforementioned planning "relaxation" certainly won't do the environment a whole lot of good, of that we may be sure though.

Which leads me to the "next big scam." That of "Home Information Packs" - recently mentioned here, has of course already died, unlamented by many. I know Ruth says it will all be fine by December but methinks she won't be in the job much longer anyway - although the "even bigger scam" that's looming - anent the relaxing of planning restrictions - will be "affordable housing". Worth buying shares in suppliers of brown envelopes then? (That's not a 'tip' by the way!)

And of course there's road pricing still to come - you lucky people.

I see nearly ex Presidente Tony has been well and truly rebuffed by George W over climate change issues then - divorces can be just SO nasty.

But of course the really big story this weekend is the "change" to which Williams has referred so frequently over the months. It ain't just brewin' now folks, it's bubblin' like a Kelly Kettle! Sir Alan of Greenspan's comments on Wednesday regarding the "China Bubble" certainly pushed Asian markets down a little and the West of course followed suit like obedient little sheep. As you'll remember, pretty much the same thing happened back in March and pushed the Dow Jones down below 12000 for a day - from which level it has recovered more than remarkably well. Will the same thing happen again? (ie a drop and then onwards and upwards as though nothing at all had happened?) We'll see - but I don't think so. This time USA Inc is beginning to realise all is not well, because now there's a recognition that the housing market is in a real mess, and just as the "driving season" begins with this long weekend, petrol prices are really starting to climb - so the "feel good" factor that for so long has helped prop up the unsustainable, is at long last beginning to change.

What we'll look at therefore this weekend by way of charts, will be the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), aka "The Dow" - and we'll discuss three timescales to see how and where the trend change from 'up' to 'down' is going to happen. IS it going to happen? Oh yes. (Note though that I said "where" above, not "when".)

Before that though we'll re - examine the chart of Invensys - last discussed here on May 13th - because "something" is happening/has already happened with that particular stock.

And that will suffice for this weekend - next weekend I'm heading back to our winter quarters for a few weeks, to take in some high mountain lake fishing, so I'll be out of contact from Friday evening June 1st till some time on Tuesday morning June 5th - therefore the next issue of WICS will be on June 10th. However, I WILL be producing video updates for those of you who have access to that service - as usual on Wednesday May 30th, and then late on Friday evening June 1st - although depending on my webmaster's commitments these may or may not be online until some time on Saturday 2nd or Sunday 3rd - ie as usual.

In the meantime then, best wishes and profitable trading,

Ian.

PS - many thanks to those of you who have very kindly completed their standing order application in order to continue to listen to these ramblings - you are masochists all, but also my favourite people for sure! Because of my travels, paperwork will inevitably take time to catch up so I won't alter the password for at least another couple of weeks - but if it does happen to be changed before YOUR form has been processed, just yell at me and I'll email you the new one - I'll trust you if you tell me it's "in the post - honestly".

PPS - here's an excerpt from a recent email from one of you - it's well worth thinking about! "Ian, I expect it always amuses you when somebody announces that he has discovered for himself the essential truth of something which you've been saying all along. It would certainly amuse me if I were in your shoes!"

My answer in fact would be that I'm absolutely delighted when someone has "discovered for themselves" that the odd thing I touch on turns out to be the case - the point being that NOBODY (myself included, make no mistake!) can really "take ownership" of anything until they arrive at it by themselves. The fact that somebody else has been banging on about it can be pretty meaningless - but when YOU 'discover' it, THAT is when it truly becomes part of YOUR thinking. MY job (as I see it) is merely to point people in a general direction so as to reduce the time spent searching in the vast ocean of trading knowledge - it's all too easy to become hopelessly lost without some kind of compass! Anyway, I'm always happy to assist, of that you may be certain.

IW.