The Big Game
Friday, September 30, 2011
Rolling passage of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) this week emboldened the markets Monday and Tuesday, only to leave them... read more

The Week in Review
Friday, September 23, 2011
The week began with all eyes on the Federal Reserve and Chubby Checker, as the most loosely guarded secret materialized on Wednesday with the Fed’s... read more

What Goes Down
Friday, September 16, 2011
Pessimism gets old.  After running from shadows for the last few weeks, markets turned this week and faced their fears.  Recent economic... read more

Week of the Governments
Friday, September 09, 2011
Governments both overseas and here at home have been the focus this week.  While the US markets were closed on Monday, the European markets were... read more

Meet The New Recession, Same As The Old Recession
Friday, September 02, 2011
While mid-August delivered sharp body blows to equity and bond markets, late August delivered a spirited rebound.  Global economic softness... read more

Ground-Euro
Friday, August 19, 2011
Markets renewed their histrionic ways this week, following another political stump speech that disappointed investors.  After returning from... read more

Caution: Hedge Funds Crossing
Friday, August 12, 2011
Over the last five trading days, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fluctuated intraday by nearly 600 points or 5% on average.  Trading volumes... read more

Change of Plans
Friday, August 05, 2011
Like a car requires gas, forecasts require data.  Two weeks ago, the data stack indicated that we had continued global growth, providing ample... read more

So It Comes to This…
Friday, July 29, 2011
It appears that agreement on substance has arrived in Washington.  What remains to be decided is simply whether we get to debate this all over... read more

These Three Things
Friday, July 22, 2011
Market gods will test you.  After asserting that 1300 represented the new battle line for the S&P 500 last Friday, I watched the market... read more

Welcome Back, Ben
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
All hail the Bernanke put!  Markets rallied strongly Wednesday as Chairman Bernanke hinted at the potential for additional monetary easing should... read more

Hooray Hooray!
Friday, July 08, 2011
Earnings season starts on Monday.  Macro season turned into a nail-biter with double dip talk, riots in Greece, debt limit brinkmanship in the... read more

Test your Indebtedness Intelligence!
Friday, July 01, 2011
Now that Greece has kicked its increasingly heavy debt-can down the road before the buzzer, the United States must do the same.  Unfortunately,... read more

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Friday, June 24, 2011
The news wires this week churned out a flurry of headlines that covered the spectrum.  As a result, the S&P 500 surged and pulled back... read more

The Grecian Formula
Friday, June 17, 2011
The denial of Greek insolvency is today’s central market issue.  To use a well- worn analogy, the perceived risks of a Greek default resemble the... read more

Hero Searching
Friday, June 10, 2011
While the market rallied into the close on Thursday, the advance proved illegitimate.  Digging into the data, the winners represented the biggest... read more

See the Bigger Picture
Friday, June 03, 2011
Data released this morning confirmed that the US job machine is gasping. Between a soft ISM manufacturing index, a super soft ADP employment report,... read more

Simmer Down Now
Friday, May 20, 2011
Rational behavior reintroduced itself in the markets this week now that the commodities market has come off its spin cycle.  With the dust settling,... read more

Earnings vs. Confidence
Friday, May 13, 2011
P (Price) = E (Earnings) x P/E (P/E multiple).  We can occasionally seem sound like a broken record when the subject turns to the earnings and P/E... read more

A Tale of Two Seasons
 
Friday, May 06, 2011
If I could, I would only open the stock market for four trading days per year. I would wait until all quarterly earnings releases arrive and then... read more

Extra Innings
Friday, April 29, 2011
Fed Chairman Bernanke presented a bull market extension plan on Wednesday at the Federal Reserve’s first press conference.  While the $600 billion QE2... read more

The Great Debate Debased
Friday, April 15, 2011
My optimism last Friday over a sober and measured debate on deficits and budget reform has tarnished. The Republican approach and the Democratic ... read more

The Great Debate
Friday, April 08, 2011
In a February posting we proposed that, in our opinion, the primary threat to America’s national supremacy was not China or an emerging competitor,... read more

America’s High Energy Returns
Friday, April 01, 2011
After a first quarter of Black Swan attacks reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” the S&P 500 put together its best first quarter return... read more

The Lens Shifts
Friday, March 25, 2011
The S&P 500 has risen 4% from its recent March trough and is now only 2% below its closing high for the year reached in February. Many might be... read more