Next week, you'll start to hear about technical levels of the indices,
If this storm wasn't out there, the market would probably be behaving much better.
But there is no panic in the air because Friday's decline was explained. Earnings that came in were a little disappointing, we had a huge run-up in January so profit taking was expected, everyone knows what's going on geopolitically and it was a Friday with options expirations.
Given the rise we saw, it shows you the importance of interest rates and what the Fed thinks. This gives us hope that the Fed will be sensitive to the economy and we can get back to that nice 'Goldilocks' economy where growth is just right.
It certainly has been an up week overall. The market is stepping back and looking at the fact that inflation is in check, we are near the end of the rates-tightening cycle and the economy is growing.
I think it's going to be tough to draw conclusions because of the lack of participation. Next week, you'll start to hear about technical levels of the indices. People will be wondering, Can we break through and really continue this year-end rally?
I think what you have is a manic market. The market reacts differently to the news each day. One day it's sure of a strong economy and controlled inflation; the next day, it reads higher rates from the Fed.
I think it's the same old story: The economy certainly surprises us by how resilient it is. It's also a question of how the market interprets those numbers. I think it'd rather see a stronger economy with higher interest rates.
Those were three lousy numbers from an economic perspective. There is the intimation of a slowdown led by the housing market and if the consumer rolls over, then we have a problem.
We built on a relief rally, ... From an economic standpoint, things picked up after the price rise in oil dropped. It showed the resilience of the economy.
We all know it's going to be a quarter point hike. But over the past two days the bond market is also telling us that it thinks the Fed is not going to stop there. The bond market will be driving stocks today.
(Commodities prices rising) would certainly seep through the economy, and the Fed is going to hike rates to keep that inflation under control.
Cooler heads are prevailing today, but there's just no buyers.
There's pent up optimism that the next couple of quarters should be OK for corporate America and the economy because the interest-rate environment has stabilized.
There's a discount on the marketplace for the possible stuff that could happen over the next couple of weeks, months or quarters that could be a drag on the economy.
There's not much players around. Buyers are mostly absent while there's a lot of tax-related selling going on.
You're seeing a little bit of buying come in today, which you'd expect after a sell off. The market is looking at what happened Friday rationally, and now it's just a wait-and-see on how other bellwether companies do on their earnings.
It's more of the same: uncertainty and energy, ... Throw in inflation and the possibility of slower growth because of the hurricane, and we're all out of sorts. There's no good news out there.
It shows you the importance of interest rates and what the Fed thinks. This gives us hope that the Fed will be sensitive to the economy and we can get back to that nice 'Goldilocks' economy where growth is just right.
The news today so far has been quite poor to say the least. You've got oil up, and it continues to go higher. The ISM manufacturing came out softer than expected. And Wal-Mart wasn't great.
There was a sense that a year-end rally would take us higher, but there's some concern from the bond market flattening. The inverting of the yield curve would bring us more problems in 2006. We also have light volume, exaggerating moves to both sides.
You've got oil up, and it continues to go higher. Where the Fed kind of has said that they are closer to the end than the beginning of tightening, they're going to probably have to deal with inflation stemming from energy, and they could have to tighten longer.
You've got a push-pull between tragedy and the good that can come out of it for the markets. You've got to rebuild, and you're going to put money and resources into that and create jobs.
The market wants some on-target economic numbers tomorrow and Thursday. We want an equilibrium in the economy. If the numbers are too strong or weak, the interest rate debate would rage on. The numbers need to show moderation.
The market is concerned with the housing numbers. There seems to be a trend setting in. Housing and the consumer have been the engines of the economy and if that's slowing or fading quickly, there are going to be ramifications for the market.
