Friends Stocks enjoyed a decent reversal today, though it did fizzle a little at the end of trading. After getting off to a lousy start fueled by Italian rates getting back above 7%, stocks fought back all afternoon. After a 75 point fall in the Dow Jones Industrial...

Friends The volume was so light today, it was like watching paint dry. The difference between now and 25 years ago? Watching paint dry now involves 100 point moves in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. After all was said and done, the Dow was down74 points to finish...

Friends First, a heartfelt thanks to our nations veterans, as well as the men and women currently in uniform. This nation is forever grateful. With the bond market being closed for Veteran’s Day, stocks were the only game in town, and quite a nice game it was. With...

Friends Stocks got off to a good start this morning getting back about 150 early Dow Points from yesterday’s shellacking, fueled by a “successful” auction of 12 month Italian notes and an unemployment claims number of 390,000 which was under the 400,000 number once...

Friends, We wondered why stocks were up yesterday given the turmoil in Italy, but were glad to accept the gains. We paid the price today, as the reality of the situation manifested itself in continuously higher interest rates on Italian debt. This of course, leads to...

Friends, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi must not have gotten enough “likes” on his Facebook post yesterday when he indicated he was not stepping down. A day later, and indeed, he is stepping down. Stocks rallied on the news (I am not sure why) as the Dow...

Friends, Stocks finished an up and down day to the upside with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 85 points for the day to comfortably close back above the 12,000 mark at 12,068. The S&P 500 was up 7.89 points to finish at the 1,261 level. Gold was up more than $7 to...

Friends, The U. S. economy produced 80,000 new jobs in October, but Mr. Market did not seem too impressed. The actual unemployment rate edged down to 9% from the previous 9.1% but the fact remains, unemployment is a huge problem and job creation has been anemic at...

Friends, The first two days of the week, Mr. Market tried to take our October gains away from us. The last two days, he’s decided to give us back a little of that upward momentum. Today’s gains were fueled once again from European news, and specifically news out of...

Friends, The first two days of the week, Mr. Market tried to take our October gains away from us. The last two days, he’s decided to give us back a little of that upward momentum. Today’s gains were fueled once again from European news, and specifically news out of...

Friends Stocks got off to a good start this morning as there was nothing new out of Europe to deter traders from snapping up some bargains from the previous two days’ carnage. Later in the afternoon the Fed statement was released with an indication that GDP growth...

Friends, November got off to a rocky start today as a combination of European news and additional problems with the MF Global unwinding sent stocks lower right from the start. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 297 points for the day and the S&P 500 was down 35...

Friends Stocks finished October with wonderful gains, despite today’s disappointing finish to the month. Perhaps it was the ghouls and goblins in the air, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average limped into the close finishing down 275 points for the day and just below...

Friends After a very lively week, stocks took a breather today as the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded in a very narrow range (by today’s standards anyway), and finally finished the day up 22 points. The S&P 500 was up less than a point to finish the day at 1285....

Friends, The bulls stepped in this afternoon, after a choppy day of trading, and decided to try to get back much of yesterday’s losses. In the end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day 162 points higher and the S&P 500 was up almost 13 points to close at...