Category Archive

While most individual economic reports have only a limited effect on market direction, today’s triple combination of nothing but disappointing data knocked the major indexes to the mat. And, unlike many instances in the past, there was no afternoon rebound, as the chart (courtesy of MarketWatch.com) shows. First, ADP’s national employment report came in weaker than worst expectations, which now …

In last Friday’s market commentary, I suggested that over-indebted countries like Greece, Ireland and Portugal, among others, can’t and eventually won’t pay back the burden of continuously shouldering the mother of all indebtedness. While the ECB and most governments are still in denial of that fact, anxiety surrounding the euro zone debt drama increased over the weekend and global markets …

There’s no question which news event ruled the day. From the get go, it was S&P’s announcement that it is cutting its outlook on U.S. government debt to negative, which could threaten its pristine AAA rating. The major market ETFs dropped like a rock, but afternoon bargain hunting limited losses somewhat. Good thing there wasn’t another negative news report, or …

There was no green number to be found in today’s market pullback, as the chart from MarketWatch clearly shows. It was a day during which recovery worries clearly surfaced as it appeared that the economy may not be as strong as had been previously assumed. While these inconvenient thoughts have surfaced from time to time, bullish sentiment has always won …