It seems that every Tuesday in 2013 since January 8 has been positive on the Dow. And this past Tuesday was no exception. Now that sounds like a trend to put money on -- buy the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) at the close each Monday and close out the position late on Tuesday.

The weekend’s worries that the Fed may be planning the end or slowdown of QE3 translated into a lackluster market performance with little movement in any of the major indices.

The S&P 500 is up 14.5% year-to-date through Wednesday, and the defensive sectors like healthcare, consumer staples, and utilities have done even better. But so far in May, the leaders have been industrials, consumer discretionary, energy, materials, financial, and technology.

The market enthusiasm generated by the positive employment report on Friday carried over to today.  The rally in Technology stocks continued from last week, but Financials did even better.  With the Nikkei and FTSE both closed, the off-shore action ended slightly more positive than negative.  We had no domestic reports today in what will be a quiet week of economic news with only Thursday’s Initial Jobless Claims and Wholesale Inventories Reports, followi

Stocks finished the month of April breaking to new highs, with the S&P 500 rising above 1597. But May Day selling put a temporary hold on the bullish celebration that will certainly occur if the S&P 500 can make a clean break above psychological resistance at 1600. Was May Day the start of the usual “Sell in May and go away” practice?

It was a pleasant opening today for the market with positive results and market activity from Europe, as well as generally positive domestic economic reports this morning.  In particular, pending home sales were up 1.5% versus an expected 0.1% and last month’s -1.0%.  Personal spending was a little better-than-expected while personal income was but a tad less-than-expected and lower than last month.  The week will be fairly full as companies continue to r

Despite an environment of uninspiring economic reports, stocks have regained their footing once again. Last week, bulls found that they simply couldn’t ignore the Boston bombing like all the other worrisome news, but the quick capture of the perpetrators has removed the domestic terrorism cloud.

Today’s market opened up a tad on positive action from Asian and European markets; however, the pangs of last week’s painful performance took hold and the S&P 500 fell as much as 0.7%.  Earnings and revenues for Caterpillar (CAT) were below estimates causing investors to recall flat to poor results from General Electric (GE), International Business Machines (IBM) and McDonalds (MCD) on Friday.  Then, shortly into today’s session, Existing Home Sales o

Market timing is tough duty. Even as stocks have risen inexorably and we all knew it couldn’t go up in a straight line, still picking tops is hard. You can be wrong for a long time, and either lose your shirt shorting the market, or miss out on big gains by staying out.

Editor’s note:  Overshadowing the turbulent market today were the two explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Our hearts go out to those injured, and the families of those killed.

China reported GDP at 7.7% year-over-year for the first quarter versus an expected 8%— and the markets toppled.  All Asian markets had a bad day; all European markets had a bad day; and all domestic markets opened sharply down.  Gold fell over 8% already.

How’s that for a Monday eye-opener?