Markets have been signaling a willingness to look past the deluge of troubling news and move higher. This is bullish behavior. On Tuesday, market psychology displayed its positivity as initial weakness on bad news was quickly reversed. Rather than demanding that the Fed initiate a QE3, investors seem to be happier with indications from the Fed that the economy might be able to muddle along without it.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a lot of auto-response emails from folks in the investment world who are on vacation these days. Yes, the summer doldrums have set in, often leaving junior portfolio managers—without seniority, vacation time, school-age children, or much in the way of discretionary authority—to mind the store.

Today, the market sold off as much as a full percent before recovering to a slight loss at the close.  At midday, it was off more than 10% from its high in April despite the solid quarterly earnings added in Q1. Factory Orders (-0.6%) were well below the expected number (+0.1%), continuing a worrisome trend that began last week when every major economic number disappointed: Consumer Confidence, Initial Jobless Claims, GDP 1st qtr.

Last week I noted that there wasn’t much new to say about the stock market and its drivers lately, but like washing your car tends to attract rain, my comments were immediately followed by anger-driven election results in France and Greece. Both of these elections were about a rejection of austerity mandates placed upon a citizenry already feeling severe pain. The thought process is, “If the U.S.

Despite last week’s little rally, April showers have dampened market. While it didn’t build into a torrential downpour, it steadily showered investors with worse-than-expected economic data, including last week’s dreadful Durable Goods Report (-4.2% compared to last month’s +1.9%), continued but minor increases in initial jobless claims throughout April, and a disappointing initial Q1 estimate of GDP (+2.2% compared the previous quarter’s +3.0%).

Apple. Need I say more?

Here we are again wondering what the market wants.  Today, it clearly wasn’t Technology stocks, as various issues dragged both Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) lower.