The! Biggest! News! of! the! Day! - Not CFC Borrowing, Pig Virus, Amgen, Paulson or Poole

Here are some of the contenders for today's biggest...news...of...the...day...

• A move by Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) to try to raise money...CFC shares were indicated down more than 15% earlier this morning but are now down "just" six percent...
• Comments from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who says the "U.S. economy is 'strong enough to absorb the losses'"...
• Comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President William Poole who says "only a 'calamity' would justify an interest-rate cut now"...
• Building expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates...
• Weakness in overseas markets...
• Concerns over a "highly infectious swine virus" in China that is "driving up pork prices and creating fears of a global pandemic among domesticated pigs"...
• Job cuts at Amgen (AMGN) as the biotechnology behemoth tries "to cope with sliding sales of the anemia drug Aranesp"...
• A look into the mortgage lender woes at Thornburg Mortgage (TMA) and Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC)...
• Upbeat comments on uranium producer Cameco (CCJ)...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest story is this - Reggie the gator briefly flees new home...according to the article, "An alligator that became a celebrity after eluding trappers for nearly two years at an urban lake managed to escape from his new home at the Los Angeles Zoo on Wednesday"...The alligator was eventually found and returned to his exhibit. It was said - "It proves to us that he's a very smart, healthy gator"

Uh yeah, [said in my best Bill Lumbergh voice] I am going to have to disagree that this "proves" how "smart" the alligator is and say it maybe is a reflection in the "other" direction.

As was noted in one of yesterday's themes - we should be smarter than the animals!