Coming Up On Wall Street

Good morning. It is a cold 20 degrees and sunny here in Upstate NY. We watched 'The Artist' last night and if you have not seen it, see it. Its truly an entertaining joy to watch. I don't want to give away a single stitch about the film but it is based on a very clever vision for a main stream movie.

So what's going on with Wall Street? Good question. The S&P is approaching a significant number, 1370. If it goes above 1370, the present rally could pick up a bit more steam. However there is resistance to crossing that threshold. All of the various elements that we know about are still in play such as the Eurozone debt crisis and especially Greece along with concerns about China's economic growth. In the US there's always the drive for continued consumer spending, the housing market in many areas is tragically bad and in other pockets its percolating. The job market is rousing very slowly yet the weekly first time unemployment numbers are improving.

Personally I think the market is in for a decent correction probably sooner than later. The indexes are in unusually high territory considering the tender state that the US and world economy is still operating in. Something has to give and I don't think we go into a period of amazing robust growth anytime soon.

Reuters: Rally on Wall St to be put to test

The S&P 500's close was the highest since June 6, 2008...

...created concerns that the market is due for a pullback...

And one economist Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder of the Economic Cycle Research Institute predicts a recession in the Summer of 2012.

Just imagine a strong recession comes through in the Summer just before the November elections and bam - Rick Santorum is the next President. You know its possible, right..

CNN: A new recession seems inevitable

Achuthan said data gathered since his September forecast only confirms his view that economic growth has slowed to such a degree that a downturn is now unavoidable, likely by late summer.