From Holden:

I just don’t see my Bush Boom materializing before the election. Estimates for third-quarter profits have been revised downwards:

Analysts have reduced their third-quarter profit estimates as the price of oil surged. Earnings for S&P 500 companies probably increased 14.2 percent this quarter, down from a July 1 estimate of 14.8 percent, according to Thomson Financial.

And they may not be finished with their revisions:

“There is probably some downward adjustment in expectations that still has to take place,” said Stuart Schweitzer, global investment strategist at JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management, which oversees more than $772 billion in New York.

It shouldn’t be too surprising then that Investor Optimism fell to a four-month low:

Investor optimism dropped to a four-month low in September, according to a survey by UBS AG and the Gallup Organization, amid rising oil prices, violence in Iraq and the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries. The Conference Board will release its consumer confidence index for September tomorrow. The research center’s index fell in August for the first time in six months.

Iraq has been a great issue for Kerry, but I still want to hear him hit Bush on the economy.