(Editor's Note: A former CNBC market maven, Gene Inger now provides a weekly look ahead at the financial markets for Market Cap subscribers. Gene's daily comments can be seen on his website, IngerLetter.com.)

Slow-growth concerns . . . followed by 'Persian Gulf oil complex attack threats' are of course attributed as causal factor for Friday's decline. But as our audio hinted at at least for a week, the complex blow-off thrust was not only anticlimactic, but heavier Naval deployments were already signaled as leading to some sort of 'engagement'; a few days before Friday's sudden 'warning' (that we beat mainstream financial medias by at least an hour with, we're happy to say; allowing a shift from an intraday rebound long to a short-sale, around the 1391 area) having felt the session would be soft early before a desperate rebound, but then fade-anew into a nervous weekend.

MarketCast (intraday audio-email) comments addresses all of this and more, in quite thorough fashion, including discussion of rumored progress with Directed Energy or 'laser' weapons (which are not necessarily evolving the way the latest press suggest).

Due to the complexity of discussion and a 'weekly basis technical corner', most all of my remarks will be in the over-20-minute audio accompanying the Daily Briefing.

This week welcomed hints at a shift, because (if persevered) it might engender some small-cap (or mid-cap) resurgence as migration through final fiscal-year-end vestiges of selling by funds or other institutions completes; while overpriced big-caps struggle, and succumb on a short-term basis. The idea about 'tech' crumbling because of PC's and motherboard sales collapsing is hilarious, since nobody who doesn't have to will buy an outgoing XP machine, given a 90-day proximity to the new Vista arriving. So it may be just what we desire, ideally setting-up good entry points some weeks forward.

Remember, longer-run, we don't know that 'technical windsocks' aren't still pointing to higher altitude flight-levels, but saw turbulence actually showing-up on our Doppler Radar. It's just that every time the inability of 'creeping gremlins' to make a presence felt (typical in a battle at a short-term top or conversely a low), in this case becomes a set-up for running shorts just a bit, as long as they can until they can't (which is very problematic close to an Election, but also with Oil fairly neutral and a mixed Dollar).

Daily action . . . focused on the economic reports, a rebound, and then Gulf threats.

Per recent remarks about threats and the deployment of sizeable U.S. Navy or other Western naval forces (including 'Expeditionary Strike Forces'), during the day Friday we reported on 'threats' to oil platforms in the Persian Gulf as well as rumored attacks from sleeper cells in Kuwait, to disrupt the government and military installations there.

We subsequently noted the threat to the Saudi oil facilities; confirmed as follows (we emphasize that you note they are referring to a seaborne, not land-based, threat, as that would require a Naval or Naval/air response depending on the nature of attacks (and note that the Ras Tanura facility is the world's largest, so oil price would jump in an immediate and substantive way, we opine, in-event the facility was actually hit:

RIYADH (Reuters) - Top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Friday it was taking measures to protect its oil and economic installations from a "terrorist threat".

Western naval forces in the Gulf have been deployed to counter a possible seaborne threat to its Ras Tanura oil terminal.

"The terrorist threat to the kingdom's economic installation exists and it is a declared goal of the straying faction to affect the interests of the Saudi citizen," an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

"Saudi security forces are cooperating and coordinating with the Saudi navy to take the necessary security measures," he told Reuters.

Bits & Bytes . . . provide investors ideas in a few stocks, often special-situations, but also covers an assortment of major technology issues (as needed for assessment of general factors in techs overall, or as compelling developments may call for) that are key movers in the NDX, SOX or S&P, plus ideas ingerletter.com thinks merit further reflection.

Broadwing (BWNG); Intel (INTC); Texas Instruments (TXN) Motorola (MOT); plus

Microsoft (MSFT); InkSure (INKS); Essex Corporation (KEYW); Ionatron (IOTN); PURE Bioscience (PURE); and QPC Lasers (QPCI) are commented upon in audio.

As always our caution that all speculative stocks; as well as all future technologies, to an extent have one always betting 'on the come', until or unless it does arrive. In such cases as stocks we cover, we not only believe 'core' technologies real, or customers and partners to be serious players, but suspect that stock purges, or future purges, if any, create most attractive prices for such issues in awhile, by virtue of the sharp and persisting retreats that have been seen. That's no assurance, but if a technology was of interest a month ago and nothing changed but share price; then it's still interesting.

Scheduled Economic News Releases:

Monday:

• Personal Income & Spending.

Tuesday:

• Redbook & UBS Retail Sales Index;

• Q3 Employment Cost Index;

• Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index.

Wednesday:

• Construction Spending (for Sept.);

• Pending Home Sales (for Sept.);

• ISM (Oct.) Manufacturing Business Index.

Thursday:

• Challenger Layoffs (Oct.);

• Initial (weekly) Jobless Claims;

• Q3 Preliminary Productivity;

• Q3 Preliminary Costs;

• (Sept.) Factory Orders.

Friday:

• Employment Report (week's key data).

In summary . . events continue reminding us of risks Allied fighting forces face, given continued attacks on free peoples, by elements including organized terrorist forces in various countries. A world addressing terror threats continues, as domestic issues absorb us less as we focus on the Middle East crisis and World War III avoidance.

Though few generally concurred for three years, our consistent view has been slow but persistent American growth isn't negative, allowing the protracted gradual growth without ancillary significantly high interest rate pressures. There's no truly-restrictive monetary policy; nor is there likely to be one, irrespective of oil-induced inflationary pressures. This is a continuing saga. Often we get a speculative phase later in a bull market, but increasingly towards the end of an overall rising phase. In our view, there has not been that degree of speculation, but that is a potential feature developing let us suggest somewhere in the years ahead, maybe late 2007-2009, barring disaster.

McClellan Oscillator finds NY 'Mac' reversing now, at -22; NASDAQ flat at -2; fairly unimpressive readings lately for runs widely perceived exceeding new high ground.

Issues continue including oil, terror; Iraq; Iran; Kurdistan, Korea, and elsewhere. Consider that we likely extend again if nothing happens over the weekend, but at any time may not hold a move; then newly ease considerably. It is worth noting that they had 'stretched the rubber-band' enough so that when it does take a snap, it might not merely be a barely-irrelevant hardly-visible short-term ease, after of course a modest effort at rebound to see how the sentiments are. At the same time we're not enthused about playing to much on a trading basis (we cover that intraday and shared amply a concern about overextended short-term moves); more interested in buying good tech stocks cheaply as may become available soon, and a few speculative bets as well.

~Gene Inger’s Daily Briefing™ (The Inger Letter daily analysis on www.ingerletter.com)

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