Insights

Alcoa kicked off the earnings reporting season today with a poor report. Earnings season is often somewhat volatile unless earnings have been on a good upward trend. The last couple years have seen corporate earnings move up to record-breaking territory and with the...

The US stock market is off 1% today following the lead of European markets which were down -0.5% (UK), -1.9% (Germany and France). Spain was down 3%, matching yesterday's loss. Year-to-date, Spanish stocks are down 21%. Portugal's woes point out a problem common to...

The S&P 500 stock index finished the shortened pre-holiday session with a gain of 0.62%. Bonds were up nicely again. Gold and natural gas were each up about 1.5% today but the real story was oil, up 5% for the day! All those probably have much to do with an...

The WSJ had a good set of charts today on the slowdown in Europe. Their charts are below or you can go to their site at www.wsj.com but you will need a current subscription. You can see the slowdown of manufacturing into negative (contraction) territory on the left...

European stock markets generally finished up more than 1% today. US stocks were down for most of the day after the disappointing manufacturing report but finished slightly higher. Bonds were up today after being down Friday. Natural gas was up 0.3% while oil lost over...

The worldwide slowdown is affecting US manufaturing which was reported today as very slightly contracting last month. An equivalent report came out for Europe earlier today. That leave economic growth up to the consumer, whose spending is up about 2.5% over the last...

According to CNBC, "It was also agreed that a single supervisory body for euro zone banks, housed under the European Central Bank, would be created by year's end—much faster than previously envisaged." Future bailouts will not come with austerity measures, a nod to...

The Supreme Court announced its decision on Obamacare today with Chief Justice Roberts writing the opinion. Roberts, not Kennedy sided with the liberal wing of the court in upholding the mandate and a penalty for people who do not buy health insurance. Hospital...

Thursday is the day we will probably hear the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare which have a big impact on businesses, individuals and government. A recent rumor by Justice Ginsberg that they were very divided over the issue means it will likely be aq 5-4 decision...

Italian and Spanish yields continue to rise. This was a problem a few months ago and with all the news about the European recession and Spain's troubles with its undercapitalized banks, contagion is back in the news. This probably had a lot to do with the fall in...