Market and World affairs comments for May 20th

First of all, yesterday there was more data reported that wasn't very good for the economy. The Leading Indicators for April came in at a -0.3% reading for April. This compares to a +0.4% reading for March. March's number was revised upward yesterday as well, from a +0.4% to +0.7% reading.

I have included today a chart of the Dow for the past 3 months as a follow-up to yesterday's chart of the Dow for a year. It gives you a better refinement of just where you are and where either support or resistance will be broken. The triangle of the convergence of these lines are getting closer. Here is the chart below.


Yesterday in politics here, President Obama gave his highly anticipated speech on the Middle East peace process and North Africa's Arab Spring uprising. The President spelled out in clear terms what had been said in private regarding the Israel/Palestinian peace process over the past 20 years. One memorable line from the President's speech was this one, "At a time when the people of the Middle East and North Africa are casting off the burdens of the past, the drive for a lasting peace that ends the conflict and resolves all claims is more urgent than ever." President Obama pushed both sides to accept his starting point — borders for Palestine, security for Israel — and get back to solving a stalemate "that has grinded on and on and on." It was a good start effort by this President to state the realities we all know to be true.

I for one like President Obama's straight talk as it has been lacking by many of our previous Presidents who have strived for peace in the MIddle East.

President Obama, in his address Thursday on the Arab world uprising, said that Syria's Assad should lead his country to democracy or "get out of the way."

Again President Obama's straight talk was a welcome change form the previous lack of a stand with respect to these uprisings for democracy in Tunisia, Egypt, and the other countries of the region. You may not agree with his policy now, but at least it is clearer.

I think there was too much information contained in his speech and to get an accurate picture of what President Obama actually said, it is best to read the transcript or listen to his speech titled, "Moment of Opportunity" in its entirety.

Market comments for Oct. 21st

The data released this morning regarding Initial Jobless Claims showed that things stayed about the same with one notable exception, a correction on last week's data which was significantly worse than we were told last week. Initial Jobless Claims for week ending 10/16 were 452K, compared to expectations of 455K. However the prior week's data was revised upwards from 462K, which set the market on a downer, to an even worse revision to 475K. Continuing Claims came in at 4.441 Million Claims against a prior week's data of 4.445 Million which was revised upward from 4.399 Million. All in all the numbers have not changed much and we seem to be stuck here. But the markets have taken this as "good news" and so the market is rising again at the open. The Nasdaq, Dow and S&P are all up at the open. The Dow is up about 40 points while the Nasdaq is up about 10 points 5 minutes into trading.

The Philly Fed data is released later as is Leading indicators and I will update the data here.