Friends Despite a couple of good economic data points this morning (both retail sales results and the weekly jobless claims number were better than expected), and a soft rally in early morning trading, the bears took control of the session and sent stocks decisively...

Friends Another very quiet day of trading. After a bit of a selloff in the morning, stocks recovered to get to positive territory by lunch time, only to fade back into the red as the trading session wore on. Once again, there was not much in the way of economic news...

Friends The bears were able to set the tone in today’s trading session, after a feeble attempt by the bulls to generate some positive momentum during late morning trading. As the afternoon unfolded stocks continued to slide, as no real catalyst for either side could...

Friends Stocks took their cue from overseas trading this morning and proceeded to spend the day in negative territory. The bears may have thought they had something going early, but as the midday passed, volatility dried up and boredom set in. After being down more...

Friends If you guessed that the jobs report would show that 175,000 new jobs were created in February, then you win. Yes, the number did come in higher than the consensus estimate of 150,000 new jobs, but the markets really seemed unimpressed. Stocks did rally early...

Friends Stocks drifted in higher territory today, as traders wait for the all-important jobs report tomorrow. Today’s weekly jobless claims number was a little better than expected, but tomorrows number will likely set the tone for the markets as we look into next...

Friends On the economic front, both the PMI Services Index and the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index came in shy of expectations and indicated slowing in the service sectors of the U.S. economy. The ADP private sector jobs number came in shy of the estimated number with...

Friends Stocks wiped out all of yesterday’s losses and then some today as traders responded to Mr. Putin’s press conference with a sigh of relief. The Russian leader took a less hawkish stance towards Ukraine (although his comments were somewhat rambling and...

  Friends Stocks were poised to open lower this morning as the Russian/Ukraine conflict escalated over the weekend, and indeed a sell-off occurred at the opening bell. The Dow dropped by more than 200 points by mid-morning, but did alleviate some of the damage as...

Friends It looked like the bulls had broken free from the recent resistance levels for most of the trading session, as the S&P was forging new highs and making things very uncomfortable for the bears. But continued bad news out of Ukraine’s Crimea finally dampened...

Friends Well, for most of the last hour of trading it looked like we were participating in the movie Groundhog Day. After a nice up move, and the S&P 500 once again dancing in new high territory for most of the trading session, stocks began the retreat and fell...

Friends Another day and another failed rally. Once again, the bulls took a run at new highs for the S&P 500 and came up short, as selling kicked in during the afternoon part of the trading session. As we discussed yesterday, bull markets are usually not built on...

Friends A new pattern has begun to develop, and at least in the short term, it is not a good one for the bulls. That pattern that is developing is stocks selling off in the last hour of trading after failing to hold onto new highs. Once again, there has been no real...

Friends We have been discussing the important resistance level of 1848 to 1850 on the S&P 500 for the last week or so, and the bulls took a run at and were able to penetrate that level in today’s session. Stocks rocketed to early gains with the S&P touching...

Friends There was not much to talk about today with regards to economic data and traders seemed totally uninterested in participating in today’s trading session. Stocks straddled the flat line until the last few minutes of trading, when a small sell-off occurred. The...