Baby I'm amazed

I've been an investment professional for almost thirteen years and I am still amazed at the extent to which the market will overreact to information that shouldn't even be news. This morning's non-news is a great example.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Construction of new homes fell in July to the lowest level in 10 1/2 years, and analysts said there is no end in sight to the deepening housing slump.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that construction of new homes and apartments dropped by 6.1 percent in July from the June pace to an annual rate of 1.38 million units.

For years mortgage pimps have been lending gazillions of dollars to people with credit scores of 425. Now that it's come back to bite them in the ass in the form of defaults and foreclosures, these Einsteins have quit lending the un-creditworthy any more money. And we're supposed to be surprised that new home starts are falling?

It's even more amazinging that it actually did suprise a lot of folks as the Dow slid 340 points (intraday) on the news. What will tomorrow bring?