DAVE HARRIS: Welcome to Dave On Stocks Podcast #70. It's Thursday August 16^th 2007. Coming to you from the fall out shelter, I'm Dave Harris. I'm a long term investor with a perspective on this tough market, and individual stock advice. It's just what we need right? We have more bad housing news. July new home construction fell over 6 percent according to the commerce department, generating the slowest pace in home building in over 10 years. Add to that, Countrywide Financial (CFC) credit troubles led the mortgage company to borrow $11.5 billion from a slew of banks. As Wall Street works out the credit and lending concerns, I suggest you take a more defensive position in this volatile market. Buy quality blue chip companies like Proctor & Gamble (PG), General Electric (GE), McDonalds (MCD) and Walgreens (WAG) which is one of the stocks to make gains today. WAG is up .61 cents at 45.12. This is an opportunity to take some equity positions if you are a long term investor, because I think the market fundamentals still look pretty good. Consumer inflation is tame on lower July gas costs, as we learned this week. The core figure also come in lower than some expected with a .2 percent rise. Consumer spending is also better than expected, with July retail sales rising .3 percent.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) said strong personal computer sales helped the company's third quarter earnings rise 29%. Revenue rose over $25 billion and above expectations. Adjusted EPS came in at .71 cents, also above estimates. The stock isn't doing much though. HPQ rose .02 cents at 46.17. I think that stock is a buy for the long term.

We've been up and down today like a roller coaster ride. The Dow Jones industrials fell over 340 points earlier today. It's just before the close and now the Dow is down 15.69 at 12,845.78. The NASDAQ is down 7.76 at 2,451.07. The broader S&P 500 went up 4.56 at 1,411.26. With some flight to safety, the bond prices rose. The yield on the 10 year fell to 4.6 percent.

That's all for today's podcast of Dave On Stocks. I'm Dave Harris. Thanks for listening. Write me with any questions or comments at the "contact us" link on this page. My website is www.daveonstocks.com. This is Dave On Stocks.