Friends A restructuring deal announced by GE this morning, which includes an enormous stock buyback, seemed to spark the animal spirits just a bit as stocks enjoyed a nice day of gains. Of note is that the Dow recaptured the 18,000 level and the S&P was able to...

Friends Stocks were able to carve out some gains today, in what was a quiet news day economically speaking. The weekly jobless claims number was as expected and although Alcoa missed a bit on revenues and sold off some, the rest of the market was unaffected by the...

Friends Stocks once again struggled to find direction today, and the somewhat confusing March FOMC  minutes released this afternoon kept traders on the sidelines, clutching their buy and sell orders. Those Fed minutes indicated that there were some voting members who...

Friends Stocks were quietly positive for most of the trading session today, as traders seem to be waiting for the beginning of earnings season to get more involved. After a nice opening, we experienced the dreaded drift and by the close had coasted back toward the...

Friends The disappointing non-farm payroll number that was released last Friday when the stock market was closed had futures traders wringing their hands over the Easter weekend. Indeed, stocks tumbled at the open of trading this morning, but quickly reversed in what...

Friends Stocks meandered in positive territory for most of today's trading session, then this afternoon when news of the pending deal with Iran hit the tape, stocks rallied a bit more as oil prices fell. Yes, there seems to be some kind of cockamamie nuclear deal our...

Friends Stocks did not a have a very good day, and that is no April Fool's joke. Futures were lower overnight and despite an early morning rally in those futures, stocks began trading to the downside and remained in negative territory for the entire trading session....

Friends The bulls and the bears wrestled each other to the ground by the close of today's final trading session of the quarter. After yesterday's rally, the bulls failed to hold serve and the bears beat those market averages back into to neutral territory for the...

Friends It looks like the bulls are doing their best to make sure that this first quarter of 2015 is not the first negative one in years. Stocks rallied right from the opening bell as traders responded to the possibility that China is willing to ease monetary policy....

Friends Well, at least stocks didn't go down today. For the first time this week, stocks traded modestly higher as the bulls struggle to avoid the first negative quarter for stocks in some time. Trading was quiet and volume light as once again there was no major news...

Friends Stocks sold off early continuing the trend that we have seen for the last few trading sessions, only to reverse course midday and work back into positive territory in late afternoon trading. Unfortunately, the rally faltered and stocks drifted back into...

Friends That nice rally in stocks that we experienced after the Fed decision last week is more than gone at this point. As the end of the quarter approaches, it appears that traders are feeling a little jumpy. The Nasdaq in particular took it on the chin today and the...

Friends Housing numbers were strong and we did see a positive read for February Consumer Prices (remember the Fed is hoping desperately for some inflation), but market participants seemed to have no interest in buying stocks today. Market averages hovered around the...

Friends As we mentioned last week, there are not a lot of market moving events scheduled in the next week or so, and today's trading was indicative of just that. Stocks opened slightly to the upside and basically loitered for the entire trading session. Market...

Friends Just another day in the market, as stocks once again experienced a triple digit move in the Dow. Today's move, thankfully, was to the upside as traders decided that yesterday's dip needed once again to be bought. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average...