Friends We had another nice reversal in the stock market today as an early 125 Dow point loss was turned into a 50 point Dow gain in early afternoon trading. After that things went basically sideways for the last couple of hours. On the economic front, an awful Empire...

Friends Perhaps today's hotter than expected PPI number will provide additional incentive for the Fed to begin to raise interest rates as soon as September. Or perhaps not. Regardless, stocks enjoyed a somewhat quiet but positive day. By the close, the Dow Jones...

Friends After yesterday's massive reversal, it was hard to tell just what we were in store for today with regards to the direction of share prices. After a somewhat "in line" retail sales number released before the opening bell, stocks began the session in slightly...

Friends Well that was quite a reversal! Stocks sold off hard this morning with the Dow down as much as 277 points by midday, but in the afternoon portion of the trading session share prices clawed their way back into positive territory. The culprit overnight was once...

Friends The Chinese decided to step up the "let's devalue our currency" race as they devalued the Yuan overnight, much more than in previous moves. As countries strive to bolster their exports via currency devaluation, the U. S. is left with a strengthening dollar and...

Friends Weak economic news out of China led to a rally in Chinese stocks (bad news is good news=stimulus), which spilled over into our markets this morning. Couple that with an overdue bounce, after seven straight down days (as measured by the Dow), and stocks enjoyed...

Friends Stocks suffered losses for the 7th straight session (as measured by the Dow), as reaction to the jobs number was muted. The non-farm payroll number came in as expected at 215,000 new jobs having been created in July. The unemployment rate fell to 5.3% while...

Friends Earnings disappointments continue to weigh on the stock market, as both stocks that were priced for perfection and also some that had already been beaten up, continue to see selling pressure. As I have mentioned before, despite the S&P 500 remaining...

Friends It was somewhat a tale of two cities today with regards to economic data. First, the ADP private payroll number came in somewhat disappointing at 185,000 new jobs created in July (expectations were for about 210,000 new jobs). Shortly after that we got the ISM...

Friends Stocks once again limped through the trading session as earnings season, and the growing belief that the Fed is poised to move in September, continued to weigh on the psyche of traders. The breakdown of stalwarts and Dow components like Apple also have traders...

Friends For stocks, July didn't end too well, and August didn't get off to a very good start today either. Overnight stocks finally began trading in Greece after weeks of being halted, and prices promptly dropped 30% (it did recover some). With other overseas markets...

Friends Weighed down by energy names, stocks struggled to gain traction today - especially the Dow. Dow components Exxon and Chevron both reported today and the results weren't pretty. To give you an idea of how far earnings have plunged for oil companies, Chevron...

Friends Our first look at 2nd quarter GDP shows that the economy grew at 2.3%, which was a little shy of the 2.9% consensus among economists. Interestingly, the first quarter negative 0.2% reading was revised upward to a positive 0.6%. That puts both quarters in...

  Friends Stocks were comfortably higher before the Fed statement was released at 1:00, and moved even higher after the release. There was nothing really new in the FOMC statement, but it seemed the Fed was more constructive on the labor situation and the economy...

Friends Led by the recently depressed energy, industrials, and materials sectors, stocks finally staged a bit of a rally after 6 straight down days. Whether it's the beginning of a snap back or just a "dead cat bounce" remains to be seen, but at least for today, the...