Friends Before we talk about today's action, I just wanted to let you know that I will be out of the office for the next several days but Scott, John, Hunter, Barb and Lelia will be around if you need anything, and we'll be sending a brief update each day also. As for...

Friends Stocks drifted aimlessly for most of today's trading session, but things should heat up after the closing bell when we get earnings releases from Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Intel, Microsoft and Starbucks - just to name a few.  Tomorrow morning we get GM, Exxon...

Friends The big news of the day was the announcement of the White House's tax reform framework, and it seemed that market participants were more interested in trying to figure out how a new tax plan might affect them than trading stocks. The market averages were...

Friends Despite the Trump administrations tough stance on lumber tariffs with Canada, stocks enjoyed another nice day. The bulls ignored any trade war signals and focused on good earnings reports from industrial giants Caterpillar and 3M as well as fast food king...

Friends Investors seemed very pleased that the French election ended in a runoff between the moderate Emmanuel Macron and the right wing candidate Marine Le Pen. The feeling is that the moderate Macron should pick up votes from the vanquished candidates and easily...

Friends Market participants seemed reluctant to get involved today before the weekend of the French elections. On the domestic front President Trump continues to insist that a tax reform plan will be released shortly and that health care reform is also making...

Friends Stocks rallied today on hopes that the republican agenda might be gaining a little bit of traction. Rumors of a revived health care bill and then reports of progress on the tax reform front had market participants feeling a little frisky as the trading session...

Friends Earnings season claimed another victim today as shares of IBM, "big blue", led the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower. After a less than stellar report IBM single handedly had the Dow trading in negative territory from the open and the market averages weakened...

Friends The market giveth, and the market taketh away. After yesterday's nice gains for stocks, a couple of earnings reports, namely Goldman Sachs and J&J set the tone for a down day. Goldman, was the main culprit as their dip accounted for a large portion of the...

Friends Traders came back from the 3 day Easter weekend tan, rested, and ready. Despite all the geopolitical concerns, market participants were in a buying mood and stocks opened positive and gained momentum throughout the trading session. Over the last 6 weeks or so,...

Friends Going into a three day weekend, and given the increasing geopolitical tensions, stocks were bound to be under some pressure this afternoon, and they were. Buyers simply stepped away from the buffet table and sellers were left searching for bids. This morning's...

Friends Geopolitical drama continued today as the Russian foreign minister and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held a press conference after Tillerson reportedly met with Vlad Putin earlier in the day. Then a report that in a Wall Street Journal interview President...

Friends Perhaps feeling the stress of geopolitical headlines or simply that there were more sellers than buyers, stocks began the trading day in negative territory only to see the Dow slip eventually into a triple digit slide. But as the trading session wore on, the...

Friends Stocks spent most of the day firmly in positive territory, but the bulls were barely able to hold onto gains by the close of trading. The news that the White House is struggling with their tax reform plan, and Sean Spicer's comment that tax reform may not be...