Weakening

Rita is weakening slightly, not that there's much difference between 150 mph and 170 mph. It's still going to be a major storm when it hits land. The track is easing eastward, which is making the folks in New Orleans nervous. The storm may come ashore, then hover, dropping copious amounts of rain. Not a good thing for the Big Easy. Check out Dr. Jeff Masters' blog for a more technical explanation of what is happening. The news of a weaker storm helped Wall Street today, but the gains were slight. Meanwhile, there's an interesting article in Money about the possible boom to certain industries because of these storms. I guess you could say this is the silver lining, though that's hard to see right now. Dow +44.02 NASDAQ +4.14 S&P 500 +4.42