Friends Finally, good news was good news. Well, at least it was for most of today’s trading session. This morning’s surprising upward revision to 2nd quarter GDP and the continuously improving weekly jobless claims number certainly was the best domestic economic news...

Friends As we mentioned yesterday, sentiment can change quickly when we are in the middle of a global political “crisis”. Market participants seem emboldened right from the opening bell, sending stocks higher for most of the session. The leaders, and not surprisingly,...

Friends With tensions mounting in Syria and the possible U. S. involvement, traders simply backed away from the table today, as stocks spent the entire day in negative territory. Though, all this market action is unfolding on very light volume, plenty of technical...

Friends After Friday’s lousy new homes sales number, today’s durable goods number was even worse. The market reaction (if you can call it a reaction) was one of indifference as stocks drifted into higher territory for most of the session. Once Secretary of State Kerry...

Friends After yesterday’s hysteria about the NASDAQ having to shut down trading for three hours, things were a bit calmer today. Stocks were able to post a second day of gains, despite an awful new home sales number this morning. Bonds actually stopped going down for...

Friends It was a bizarre day in the markets, as NASDAQ halted trading for over 3 hours because of a technical problem. So, for a major part of the trading session, nothing much happened. Thank goodness there was nothing major, news wise, going on today. Stocks had...

Friends To taper or not to taper, that is the question. Market participants waited with bated breath for the Fed minutes to be released this afternoon, but when it was all said and done, did we really learn anything new? Well, we found out that the members of the FOMC...

Friends Stocks were able to break a four day losing streak (well the S&P 500 and NASDAQ did anyway), but the bulls aren’t getting out the party hats just yet. For most of the session, the bond market remained calm which seemed to allow stocks to drift in positive...

Friends The stock market seemed to be minding its own business this morning until, once again, the bond market began to sell off (rates rise) and stocks followed suit. This has been the pattern for the past several sessions. As bonds deteriorate stocks head south. One...

Friends The stock market continues to be influenced by the bond market, as today’s action illustrated. What looked like early morning strength quickly melted into weakness as soon as the yield in the 10 year treasury headed toward 2.85% (remember yields up means bond...

Friends Despite a good weekly jobless claims number, and a decent Consumer Price Index number, stocks suffered the worst day we have seen in a while. The trigger seemed to be the selloff in the bond market (rates continuing to rise) as the yield on the 10 year note...

Friends Stocks slumped today as a tame Producer Price Index report didn’t seem to entice buyers to get involved. The market averages spent the day in negative territory and even late in the day dovish comments from Fed Governor Bullard didn’t turn the tide. After a...

Friends Stocks had quite a roller coaster ride today, as an up opening quickly melted into a downward plunge before the lunch hour, only to rally by early afternoon. The retail sales number was a bit disappointing, but the main culprit in the downward move after a...

Friends Stocks picked up right where they left off on Friday in early morning trading, as the major averages all opened to the downside as the session began (the Dow was down about 65 points early on). After the initial drop, buyers spent the rest of the day nibbling...

Friends Good economic data out of China overnight, along with a pretty good weekly jobless claims number, seemed to attract some buyers as stocks moved to a quick 70 point gain in the Dow in early trading. Unfortunately, the buyers exhausted themselves early and by...