Coming Up On Wall Street

That extra hour of sleep really did the trick. I am lazing about with a semi-sore back from Saturday's remodeling efforts. I need 4 weeks on a beach in the sun.

Wall Street passed through elections, the Fed's quantitative easing, and employment data unscathed and moving up. Seriously now, did anyone imagine the DOW in the 11,500 range ever again, not I.

The financial journalists are saying that they simply don't know what to expect. There are no major hurdles like elections and such coming up this week, and there is no critical economic data as well.

This can only mean one thing - some out of the blue ameliorating factor will come through the pike which will either upset the apple cart or dunk basketballs. What could it possibly be? Europe's fiscal non-integrity causing angina, China's banking mood swings, some great merger, a new round of layoffs, a surprising uptick in consumer spending, or just plain old greed AKA taking profits, who knows...

Reuters: Stocks seek direction after Fed and elections

With earnings season winding down and a light economic calendar next week, the market will be left to its own devices to sort out its direction.


...the late-week action suggests a market getting ready for more gains -- not a sell-off.


A correction might still occur, though. A number of indicators suggest the market is in position to consolidate.


The S&P 500 faces strong resistance at around 1,228, a key retracement of the benchmark's slide from its historic high in 2007 to the 12-year low in March 2009.