The Market On Wednesday

Good morning. It is a pleasant 66 degrees and sunny here in Upstate NY. Kudos to Christian Bale for visiting Aurora, that was a top notch gesture. It's hard to imagine the level of trauma that someone sitting in that theater is now experiencing. It's traumatic simply knowing about it, but to be in there and witness that or perhaps even to have gotten shot, that is very difficult. A tragic event that may have lasted only minutes will take years to work through and even then some may not be able to shed that suffering, but we want them to shed it.

At 8:20 a.m. futures are flat, the dollar is mostly up against major world currencies, and the price of oil is slightly up per barrel. The market is poised to open in the mixed territory.

Apple has produced a poor second quarter report and consequently the tech sector is in trouble. On the other hand Ford came through better than expected so there is a struggle or perhaps a negative/positive balance occurring. We shall see which wins out, but the market has been on a downward slide this week.

Investors will be parsing data on the weak housing market along with more second quarter reports. Looming in the background and foreground is the tumultuous economic upheaval occurring in Europe. Investors are watching the developments in Spain, Greece is out on the perimeter of the solar system lost, and now even stalwart Germany is showing signs of stress. Essentially the global economy rides on consumer buying and with Europe in distress, Europeans are not buying.

CNN: Apple, Ford set stocks up for choppy day

... Apple's disappointing earnings...


...the automaker's (Ford) earnings and sales topped Wall Street forecasts...


Fears that Spain is moving closer to needing a full-blown bailout -- like those granted to Greece, Ireland and Portugal -- continued to build...


...Germany's business confidence index declined for a third straight month in July...