Last week went very much as expected with the S&P 500 inching along again: It was slightly down Monday and Tuesday and then slightly up each of the last three days to end the week up +1.00%.

The markets opened up today on the heels of last week’s positive developments in Europe. Unfortunately, Manufacturing ISM came in unexpectedly low at 49.7 versus an expected 52.2, which was down sharply from last month’s 53.5.  The market quickly gave up those early gains; the S&P 500 and the Dow took a small loss while the NASDAQ held onto a small gain.