Up until Friday’s disappointing unemployment numbers, the stock market appeared ready to regain the year’s high all in one week. However, the ugly news that the nation hired a meager 18,000 of our unemployed dashed investor’s hopes that the economy might be gaining strength in the second half.

By now we have reached our debt limit of $14.294 trillion here in the United States. As you read this, the U.S. Treasury is already shuffling bits of electronic paper around to stay current on our nation’s debt payments. By August 2 even this desperate farce will have come to an end.

Well, we’ve made it through another pullback together. It seems clear to me that this week’s stock market action is telling us that the worst is over—for now.

“Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in through nose, out the mouth. Wax on, wax off. Don’t forget to breathe, very important” Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid Miles of newsprint and thousands of terabytes of internet space has been devoted to what happens tomorrow, the day after the [...]

After this week you should have either an upset stomach, stress headache or both. Human beings do not do well in markets that climb up and down by over a percent on a daily basis. Unfortunately, as this market bottoms, we may expect more of the same.

On Thursday, for only the third time in its history, the International Energy Agency decided to release 60 million barrels of oil from global strategic petroleum reserves. They did so in order to “ensure a soft landing for the world economy.”

The European Community’s solution to the Greek debt crisis has been an exercise in kicking the can down the road for well over two years. Unfortunately, this Greek Tragedy is now taking on the dimensions of a three ring circus and taking the world’s financial markets along with it.

Here we are in the middle of June, in the third year of a Presidential Cycle, and no one is talking of its historical bullish implications. Despite all the present gloom and doom about the economy and the stock market, here’s something to remember. There has never been a negative return in the stock market [...]

Sometimes you just need to throw in the towel, take your losses and walk away. This is not one of those times.

Last week’s uninspiring gain in employment disappointed Wall Street and sent the markets into the doldrums. As July approaches and the start of most state and local government’s new fiscal year begins, expect a lot of pink slips in the mail.