Lehman heating up a slow summer session

Should the Fed step in to do something about Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE)?

• With $233 billion due by end of quarter, they must, but there are structural and societal ramifications, which is why it's so tricky.
  
  
• What happens to the dollar if all that debt is assumed by the government?
  
  
• Where do you draw the line of socialization? That, in a nutshell, is the moral hazard debate.

Odds and Ends

• Crude: we talked about the $10 technical increments and they continue to play out. It failed at $120 and $110 is back on the radar.
  
  
• Wachovia Corporation (NYSE: WB): you can learn a lot just by watching and this stock isn't participating in the bank rally today.
  
  
• Retail HOLDRs (AMEX: RTH): if our take on the migrating phases of the credit crisis plays out, a nice short could be setting up as this puppy approaches par ($100).
  
  
• We're hearing (not confirmed) that a $3 billion commodity fund halted redemptions and that could be behind the price action in commodity land today.

We're almost there, my friends -- keep your focus and remember that the risk profile you go home with is the one you'll awake with during next week's holiday thinned stretch.

R.P.