Friends As we head into Fed week, Greece stole the headlines as talks broke down over the weekend which led to stocks slumping in early trading. Despite erasing some of the early 180 point Dow loss, stocks never really threatened to go positive and stayed decisively...

Friends What looked like a good week for stocks ended on a sour note, as stocks spent the entire trading session in negative territory. We got a PPI number this morning that was a little hotter than expected, so we can add that to the data points that the FOMC will...

Friends A better than expected retail sales number and a decent jobless claims number helped stocks tack on a hundred point Dow gain in early trading. But negative Greece headlines derailed the rally somewhat as stocks then coasted with modest gains into the close....

Friends Stocks were already enjoying a good morning when a report surfaced that perhaps German Chancellor Angela Merkel might be willing to play nice with Greece and let them gradually adhere to the conditions that Eurozone members want instituted. The result was a...

Friends If you know anyone looking for a job, let them know that the JOLTS (job openings and labor turnover survey) number released today indicated the highest reading since they began measuring job openings back in 2000. That's right, year over year openings are up...

Friends With a bit of a lull between last week's employment data and next weeks Fed meeting, traders will be searching for a catalyst of some sort (of course, at any moment in time Greece could shake things up). Today's action was sloppy at best, with stocks spending...

Friends Market participants couldn't decide whether today's jobs data was good news or bad news. Indeed, the 280,000 new jobs created in May was better than expected, and the unemployment rate is holding near 5.5%, not to mention continuing progress in wages as they...

Friends So the IMF feels that the U.S. Federal Reserve should hold off on raising rates until 2016. Ok, now the IMF is the world's central banker I guess. Moving on, stocks had a miserable day today, as the tone was set even before the opening bell as markets around...

  Friends Today's economic data was certainly nothing to cheer about as the ADP private payroll number came in just about as expected (201,000 new private sector jobs created in May), but the ISM non-manufacturing (service sector) number was somewhat weak. In...

Friends We experienced another mixed day of trading-down some, up some, down some, etc.  The morning began with bomb threats on airlines and concerns about Greek debt, which initially sent stocks into the red, but traders seemed content just to stand back and watch...

  Friends It appeared that the bulls were going to rule the day as stocks rallied nicely at midday, but as the afternoon wore on the market averages slumped a bit. The ISM manufacturing number was a little better than expected, and coupled with Greece not having...

Friends The 1st quarter GDP was revised downward about as expected, with the number coming in at a negative 0.7% (the negative revision in the final sales component being the most disturbing). So just like last year's first quarter, the economy starts the year in the...

Friends After yesterday's nice snapback rally, a bad overnight session in China lead to a soft opening as trading got underway. Stocks stayed in negative territory for the rest of the day as yesterday's rally was quickly forgotten. Traders seem to be bracing...

Friends Have I mentioned that the stock market in 2015 seems to have amnesia? Once again, the bears could do nothing with the decline in share prices yesterday, as the bulls took control of the situation right from the start of trading today and held onto the gains...

Friends The downward move in stocks today prompted somewhat of a multiple choice quiz for determining the cause of today's pullback. Was the cause for the downturn weak economic news, or was the data actually too strong? Was it fear of a rate hike coming sooner than...