Into the trading week, (Apr. 23- )

The week long whipsaw being called a Bull/ Bear battle is a little extreme considering neither side has conviction to put money where their mouths are.  In this view, it’s more of a standoff than a battle as investors keep watch from a distance.  One result of the recent action is chartists, mostly Bear ones have come out in numbers with their Bear wedges, Bear flags now to give the week/ month long action some color.  If some market direction occurs soon, they will say it was in the charts.  But, the real culprit will always turn out to be a catalytic event and we’re coming into a few weeks of possible triggers for such.

To sum up last week’s action, it’s surprising the SP was actually able to muster a gain as the tape had reason to be ‘heavy’.  The lingering Euro’ debt crisis , ‘light’ eco’ data (notably, Initial claims #) , toss in noise “crumbles’ about AAPL nearly testing its 50Ma for the first time in 4 months and festering noise of a repeat of 2011 action as we come into the cyclical ‘sell in May’ buzz.  The negativity was offset by the ‘calming' earnings.  As discussed recently, market will know trends quickly off earnings and that’s the case now with important names in each important sector out of the way.  Best gauges are out of the way and Q1 is positive considering the weak global growth hand dealt.

On deck this week,

Initial claims, this may turn out to be the vital market puzzle piece this week (post 2 light weeks of numbers). Earnings will not overshadow eco’ data as they did last week.  Now, eco’ data has to compliment the earnings.  If  I’C’ #  number keeps on trending up to 400k it will invoke fear of a weakening labor market.  NFP# is a few weeks away and this Initial claims is last for April’s NFP#. 

FOMC,  market will look for changes in the growth rhetoric due to the recent eco’ data, specifically last NFP and Initial claims. Also, economic, rate tightening forecasts are on tap.  Policy will most likely be reaffirmed.

Earnings, it becomes a single stock story as major trends known. Still, one sector really interested in is the ‘retail’ luxury/ growth space to see if momentum is continuing. (COH reports, early March it was quite positive).  Of course, AAPL is on Tues. Last week, closely followed here, URI  PII VMW  FFIV  UA  were viewed positively. Add MLNX  to list off report last week.

China, China who?.  Now that we’ve escaped ‘hard landing’ again , Shang’ the best market in April.  Flash PMI’s early this week. Recall discrepancy between these HSBC #’s vs, gov’t.

Europe, Besides EU flash PMI’s, it’s a quiet schedule of events with politics taking over with May 6 elections in France/Greece. 

Ahead of the open, (24-04)

Any surprise to see fresh European complications emerge and set the market tone?. No, but yes when it’s the ‘Dutch’ turning the trick after failing to reach a budget deal.   Late last week, noted, “Unfortunately, besides Spain woes likely to continue, market is beginning to focus on upcoming elections (France, Greece).   Well, it seems the Dutch jumped the gun and put itself in the middle of the political uncertainty landscape.  No doubt the downfall of an ally ‘AAA’ government is significant, but to draw U.S market conclusions is too early.   Today’s fear is Germany will lose 2 ‘debt crisis’ leader allies in France/ Netherlands and things will unravel. Also, EU PMI’s showed contraction picked up in April and compounds the fiscal budget/ GDP picture. Although billions of market cap were wiped out in Europe (~3% DJ Euro’ Comp), SP managed to pare losses off April lows and close at SP1366.  

Of course, “China who?”, flash PMI gets overlooked.  Although still under 50, inside there was broad improvement.( ie.new and export orders)

Instead of a bad close or volume intraday ramp down through supports (wedges, flags), we got a gap down, which allows for a gap fill trade.  As for intraday, the gap forced some to cover and lifted market well off lows.  If the wedges, flags were broken intraday, shorts would have pressed and more longs would have exited.  Instead, today was slow and not panicky, Shadowlist components held up well, (Financials, GS/JPM were flat decoupling from Euro financials and quite a few growth retailers/ consumers did okay, KORS LULU PVH VFC)

All in, we’ve probably seen nothing yet as far as volatility this week.

Ahead of the open, (26-04)

 Earnings season growth coming in at 10-11% vs. low single digit expectation has pushed SP to 1390 /over our 20MA benchmark for first time in 2 ½ weeks. Without AAPL, SP still gained ~1% on the day.   RUT near important ~815 level again.   Today, 21 out of 45 stocks listed in the last Shadowlist gained >3%, just under half of those >4%.   Still, most beta stocks only managed to put in an ‘inside day’on the individual charts for now.   All the weekend Bear wedges, flags were put to dust.   Market not only ran back through them, but now sits in the vicinity of ~2 week range highs.  A big 'Bear' failure to increase Monday’s downside, but as discussed afterwards the gap might've played into the Bulls hands. 

  

Europe, positives from earnings, LTRO working (putting money into the economy according to bank lending survey), ECB might be stepping up on the growth compact measures to go with the fiscal discipline pacts.

 

 

FOMC, an In-line ‘ready to do more’, if eco’ deteriorates….If you need to pick at parts, Bernanke said last NFP# was not representative of broader labor market indicating things are better than it seemed from the NFP.   Also, sounded better on housing.   In all, a tad better growth forecast. First hike forecast moved odds(hawkish) into Q4’13.

 

All in, the above looks like 'upside risk', an initial claims # retreat would be a nice starter to reclaiming SP1400.

 

Oh yeah, Ironically (lol), following yesterday’s IBD rant .. IBD has reversed its early April ‘Market in correction’ call to 'Market in Confirmed Uptrend'.

Daily Journals will be only available via Email shortly

Ahead of the open, (27-04)

Market doubled its day gains post noon hour as upward bias once again caught people flat footed and chasing into the afternoon/close.  Yesterday, noted the upside risks and also potential to reclaim SP1400, starting with a better than expected Initial claims.  Well, seems market didn’t mind initial claims disappointing, maybe because spike in Pending home #'s took some of the heat off recent related data.  Still, the spin is likely that a disappointing I.C # put some QE back on table following Bernanke’s remarks on FOMC day.  All QE asset classes rising together signal this. 

  

All in, SP got over 1392 range top on most radars, a second day over 20ma, RUT pushing over 20ma.  Most stocks escaped ‘inside day’ on charts noted yesterday.  A little digestion of 3% uptick since Monday’s low is in order, but mentality should revert to buying the dips, which eventually would allow for SP 1400 to be reclaimed.

  

GTLS, EQIX  were earnings winners off the Shadowlist, gaining 10% and 13% respectively.  LVS, more of a momo’ stock caught the selloff draft despite good EPS as many names recently noted.

   

Retail earnings heats up in May, but a few small/mid- caps coming in early were pretty positive today.  Most retail links off Shadowlist put in >2% gains (KORS, VRA, LULU, FOSL , RL). Those names keep list balanced and at max. ~45 equities, other retail closely followed like COH VFC  PVH TIF  are never far away to mix in the group

Into the trading week, (Apr. 30- )

Into the last trading week, a long range bound trade between SP1370 to 1400 narrowed and had Bear chartists drawing up wedges, flags indicating a break of 1370SP would resolve the range.  Unfortunately, the Monday gap down leading to a low of 1358 backfired with SP reversing over 3% from trough by Friday’s close. (1.8% SP gain on the week). 

 

One thing charts couldn’t tell you is how short lived the breakdown might be or why…., “Instead of a bad close or volume intraday ramp down through supports (wedges, flags), we got a gap down, which allows for a gap fill trade.  As for intraday, the gap forced some to cover and lifted market well off lows.   If the wedges, flags were broken intraday, shorts would have pressed and more longs would have exited.   Instead, today was slow and not panicky,…”.  Still, the next day as gap was being closed, the market experienced a simultaneous sell off of high beta ‘leader’ stocks that brought on fear for the health of the market.  Following the selloff that had many baffled, it was noted a rotation of money as with AAPL earlier was occurring this day into Industrials, multi’s as earnings were still coming in strong in the sector(s).   Concluded with, “If not mistaken April 9th was a similar day for growth stocks.  Although entire market sold off, IBD 50 underperformed (off >2.5%).  That was also the AAPL peak and since a 15% correction to trough has occurred in the stock,  SP has been relatively flat since!.   That day time more ‘growth leaders’ tumbled, yet a more convincing retreat/ bigger market sell off never materialized as was the speculation due to high beta action.  It (retreat) shouldn’t materialize now either and this will likely turn out to be not much more than a 1 day phenomenon once the shock and value is seen.”.  

   

A 1 day phenomenon it was!.  Leader stocks and/or majority of Shadowlist beta’s made a straight line 3 day run. (A recap of how this unfolded is probably good to embed in your trading methodology for future reference).

   

By the end of Wednesday’s trade, we were pointing out the technical positives, IBD market confirmed uptrend call and reclaiming SP 1400…”..pushed SP to 1390 /over our 20MA benchmark for first time in 2 ½ weeks. Without AAPL, SP still gained ~1% on the day.   RUT near important ~815 level again”, ….Yes, technical stuff mattered , but it was supported by FOMC, European ‘growth shift, Eco’ data (housing notably) positives to make it work, unlike the gap down.

   

Into the trading week,

   

Eco’ data, Global PMI’s should be in- line with Flash numbers/expectations. EU zone can’t be any worse and China’s # will likely be ignored as it was after the ‘better than expected’ Flash PMI last week.  U.S #’s will be more in focus, expected to be flat to last Q.  ‘Longs’ hope is the IC’s have been deteriorating due to ‘seasonality’ (early warm weather boost, now give back), next I’C is likely critical for this assumption to be believable for much longer.  NFP# follows on Friday with consensus at 175K additions up from 120k last month.  A case for easing will be made if NFP# is sluggish again.  In all, market reaction to NFP may just depend on where SP stands by the report.

   

ECB,  the growth twist gained a lot of traction late in the week in major financial publications. ,” ECB might be stepping up on the growth compact measures to go with the fiscal discipline pacts”.(25-04).  It’s a big positive hope for the region’s economic recovery as austerity resistance grows.  PMI’s likely showed austerity is backfiring, while Dutch gov’t falling showed reform won’t go along way alone. Unfortunately, this will be no easy task to mesh the two together.

   

Fears are receding (China), Europe gets shrugged off immediately  and/or after a 24-48hr market ‘crisis’ ensues, (Spain yield fears recently, (now at ~5.7% even after SP downgrades), Dutch gov’t crumbling, French elections, UK back in recession are this weeks’ examples.  One thing that is not receding is the consumer and their consumption numbers in the U.S as this week highlighted with a few data points. Entering last week and highlighted throughout week was retail…. “Still, one sector really interested in is the ‘retail’ luxury/ growth space to see if momentum is continuing.”.   Last 3 days, Consumer discretionary, RTH/XRT all outperformed to 2012 highs. (SSS#’s next week and retail sales #’s May 15).  This remains an underlying reason to be tactically long in ’12 and the reason a  ‘go away in May.’, spring market weakness may only be a ‘Bears’ wish.   All critical data points show economy is better now than in 2011.

 

Into the trading week, (Apr. 23- )

Into the last trading week, a long range bound trade between SP1370 to 1400 narrowed and had Bear chartists drawing up wedges, flags indicating a break of 1370SP would resolve the range.  Unfortunately, the Monday gap down leading to a low of 1358 backfired with SP reversing over 3% from trough by Friday’s close. (1.8% SP gain on the week). 

 

One thing charts couldn’t tell you is how short lived the breakdown might be or why…., “Instead of a bad close or volume intraday ramp down through supports (wedges, flags), we got a gap down, which allows for a gap fill trade.  As for intraday, the gap forced some to cover and lifted market well off lows.   If the wedges, flags were broken intraday, shorts would have pressed and more longs would have exited.   Instead, today was slow and not panicky,…”.  Still, the next day as gap was being closed, the market experienced a simultaneous sell off of high beta ‘leader’ stocks that brought on fear for the health of the market.  Following the selloff that had many baffled, it was noted a rotation of money as with AAPL earlier was occurring this day into Industrials, multi’s as earnings were still coming in strong in the sector(s).   Concluded with, “If not mistaken April 9th was a similar day for growth stocks.  Although entire market sold off, IBD 50 underperformed (off >2.5%).  That was also the AAPL peak and since a 15% correction to trough has occurred in the stock,  SP has been relatively flat since!.   That day time more ‘growth leaders’ tumbled, yet a more convincing retreat/ bigger market sell off never materialized as was the speculation due to high beta action.  It (retreat) shouldn’t materialize now either and this will likely turn out to be not much more than a 1 day phenomenon once the shock and value is seen.”.  

   

A 1 day phenomenon it was!.  Leader stocks and/or majority of Shadowlist beta’s made a straight line 3 day run. (A recap of how this unfolded is probably good to embed in your trading methodology for future reference).

  

By the end of Wednesday’s trade, we were pointing out the technical positives, IBD market confirmed uptrend call and reclaiming SP 1400…”..pushed SP to 1390 /over our 20MA benchmark for first time in 2 ½ weeks. Without AAPL, SP still gained ~1% on the day.   RUT near important ~815 level again”, ….Yes, technical stuff mattered , but it was supported by FOMC, European ‘growth shift, Eco’ data (housing notably) positives to make it work, unlike the gap down.

  

Into the trading week,

  

Eco’ data, Global PMI’s should be in- line with Flash numbers/expectations. EU zone can’t be any worse and China’s # will likely be ignored as it was after the ‘better than expected’ Flash PMI last week.  U.S #’s will be more in focus, expected to be flat to last Q.  ‘Longs’ hope is the IC’s have been deteriorating due to ‘seasonality’ (early warm weather boost, now give back), next I’C is likely critical for this assumption to be believable for much longer.  NFP# follows on Friday with consensus at 175K additions up from 120k last month.  A case for easing will be made if NFP# is sluggish again.  In all, market reaction to NFP may just depend on where SP stands by the report.

   

ECB,  the growth twist gained a lot of traction late in the week in major financial publications. ,” ECB might be stepping up on the growth compact measures to go with the fiscal discipline pacts”.(25-04).  It’s a big positive hope for the region’s economic recovery as austerity resistance grows.  PMI’s likely showed austerity is backfiring, while Dutch gov’t falling showed reform won’t go along way alone. Unfortunately, this will be no easy task to mesh the two together.

   

Fears are receding (China), Europe gets shrugged off immediately  and/or after a 24-48hr market ‘crisis’ ensues, (Spain yield fears recently, (now at ~5.7% even after SP downgrades), Dutch gov’t crumbling, French elections, UK back in recession are this weeks’ examples.  One thing that is not receding is the consumer and their consumption numbers in the U.S as this week highlighted with a few data points. Entering last week and highlighted throughout week was retail…. “Still, one sector really interested in is the ‘retail’ luxury/ growth space to see if momentum is continuing.”.   Last 3 days, Consumer discretionary, RTH/XRT all outperformed to 2012 highs. (SSS#’s next week and retail sales #’s May 15).  This remains an underlying reason to be tactically long in ’12 and the reason a  ‘go away in May.’, spring market weakness may only be a ‘Bears’ wish.   All critical data points show economy is better now than in 2011.

Ahead of the open, (01-05)

Chi PMI plunge, Financials down for the month, AAPL retrace of earnings, first red month since November… and the market as a whole is falling apart at the seams!.  That pretty well  sums up the Bear spiel today.  Unfortunately, these arguments have little merit here following a 4 day SP run, major Global markets closed today or planning to be tomorrow for May Day.  Today was just more of the digestive action continuing from Friday..” A little digestion of 3% uptick since Monday’s low is in order, but mentality should revert to buying the dips, which eventually would allow for SP 1400 to be reclaimed”.(BMO 27-04).  Recall, it’s the 1370-1400 range noted here for weeks, not 1370-1390 ‘box’ noted for breakout in many places that matters.  It will take consecutive closes over SP1400 for the level to be reclaimed by the ‘longs’.

  

Bottom line, nothing changed the playing field today, market is waiting for key April eco’ data later this week (see Into the trading week).

Ahead of the open, (02-05)

Pessimism towards the domestic economy had grown since initial claims, NFP# showed possible loss of momentum.  This allowed for today’s upside risk (U.S ISM).  Noted the only possible risk was U.S data as far as PMI’s were concerned… "Global PMI’s should be in- line with Flash numbers/expectations. EU zone can’t be any worse and China’s # will likely be ignored as it was after the ‘better than expected’ Flash PMI last week.  U.S #’s will be more in focus, expected to be flat to last Q".   Not only did the # come in at the strongest rate in 10 months, but importantly it didn’t come in like the disappointments seen recently.  A disappointment had become the expectation.  A win-win. All thePMI internals were positive as well. (orders, employment etc.).  All in, ISM was in contrast to recent US data, including previous days Chi # shrugged off here.  Although jitters were eased today for the market, it goes with the tactical long premise here.

As far as mid -day tailspin of 10 SP handles post rally from SP 1415, (RUT closing red, Nasdaq barely in the black).   In this view, it’s a big deal to the same who called out the market yesterday on its poor performance before Dow closed at 4 year highs today.  If market holds the 1400 level tomorrow, it will be forgotten.

Ahead of the open, (03-05)

Considering how much was made of the previous sessions mid -day slide, it was no surprise to see ES continuing its slide and almost entirely wipe out ISM gains.  Some follow through was inevitable as Europe was coming off holidays with region soft eco’ #’s(inline) to help the late U.S  day sour sentiment drag.   The ADP# falling short of expectations didn’t help, but it was hardly a surprise considering how labor data has come in.  Also, consensus for NFP# has declined to ~160K this week, although even a lower # might be the ‘real’ market expectation following ADP.  The U.S PMI was a nice surprise ‘relief’ indicating the economy is not falling off a cliff, still an improvement sequentially in Initial claims/ NFP is what the market ‘longs’ really want.

  

As noted the previous 2 days, each sell-off and ‘market is falling apart at seams’ chatter had no merit here.  Today’s dip to a low of SP1393 and close of 1402 continues to reinforce the premise . .” A little digestion of 3% uptick since Monday’s low is in order, but mentality should revert to buying the dips, which eventually would allow for SP 1400 to be reclaimed”.  We do have the consecutive closes over SP1400, but it's not a done deal to say it's reclaimed to see new highs, just yet.  Still, holding SP1293 is a positive.

 

Our Shadowlisted retail names continue to roll as Consumer links outperform broader market, fresh highs hit by LULU, PVH, VFC….. UA RL KORS FOSL not far away.

  

A ‘ Eurozone’ wildcard this week for upside risk exists if ECB meeting reveals an openness to rate cuts, Spain deal if done right.

Ahead of the open, (04-05)

Into the trading week, ..”Longs hope is the IC’s have been deteriorating due to ‘seasonality’ (early warm weather boost, now give back), next I’C is likely critical for this assumption to be believable for much longer”.   Initial claims fell back to 360’s pre-Easter levels giving credence to the above 'weather kick back'.  Taking into effect the previous week’s upward revision, a sequential wk/wk drop of 27K took place as needed.   Why was the ES uptick faded soon after?   Well, that’s because ECB ‘wildcard’ (yesterday’s note) was hawkish, ‘current rate accommodative’.  Market reached too far with hope of any forward looking cut discussions.  In all, it was only an upside risk possibility (if dovish) and shouldn’t have negated the better IC #. The softer services ISM, mixed SSS retail sales (higher end still strong), didn’t help, but wasn’t the market driver to low 1390's again.  If anything, the European close (SP~1402) weighted on stocks. 

 

All in, market was in the twilight zone, not sure what it was thinking or doing  today,(includng bleeding the SOX/RUT to 2X SP losses).  Hopefully, it's just hesitation, a lack of buyers ahead of lowered NFP# expectations or maybe today's flippant reactions are indications market is running out of catalysts short term. (Labor market may take weeks to figure itself out). Only a print of 200K tomorrow may wake this bunch up as SP earnings season effect wanes.

  

Away from the indecisive broad market, single stock action is what it’s really about and a few more Shadowlisted stocks (LQDT, MSTR) came in with excellent EPS and were top 5 point gainers on the NASD.  Decent early entries, (even after gaps) on both stocks provided ~15pts from low to peak in just under 30minutes.  Quick trades or long holds to take some gains off the table, the names keep working Q/Q.  Also, off list , DXPE EPS pushed it to NCH, while (AMC), LKND  came in with a good report.

Into the trading week, (May 07- )

Below are the 3 headlines causing market tremors overnight.  Are they worthy of the overnight drop?.  Likely not, but going to watch from the sidelines (not add 'discount' positions) until some calmness returns.  Single stock action will tell the tale, could be just a lot of ES(futures) shenanigans.

 

 

Europe's banks hoarding cash at ECB.

Greek election outcome worst than expected.

France election right inline.

Ahead of the open, (08-05)

The trading week ahead was supposed to be a quiet one with tier 1 eco data/ earnings out of the way.   If it wasn’t bad enough markets already had sold off after the ‘whisper’ NFP#  was hit, Euro region elections roiled futures to ~ 1342 Sunday night with one election (France) coming inline and the other (Greece), worse than expected.  These elections were not listed as ‘catalytic’ events the past week.  The French victor was anticipated, market had become generally fine with it and the pro-growth rhetoric coming from Hollande.   As far as Greece, it had become a non-event after the market breezed through their last event that produced negative headlines.  If anything, EU banks hoarding cash in a WSJ story might have been the only ‘unexpected’ event.  All in, the short 8am premarket note played out well as all ES losses were recouped impressively soon after the opening bell and closed at Friday’s price (SP1370).  “Are they worthy of the overnight drop?.  Likely not, but going to watch from the sidelines (not add 'discount' positions) until some calmness returns.  Single stock action will tell the tale, could be just a lot of ES (futures) shenanigans”.

   

Since Thursday, market had a lacklustre reaction to I’C’# going back to pre-Easter favorable levels, we had a ‘late’ sell- reaction to a lowered/ ‘whisper NFP” (along the lines of ADP, GS forecast) and now Euro region ‘elections’ were made out to be a market driver overnight, but were not considered to be such last week.   As speculated below, market is out of ‘catalytic’ events with earnings over and labor markets remaining inconclusive for what could be weeks.  We could also say the upside ISM was basically faded earlier in the week.  The reason to stay sideline, besides to due failure to reclaim SP1400 and not add at discounted prices today(none anyways in single stocks) is because moves are being faded since the ISM.

  

…”…a lack of buyers ahead of lowered NFP# expectations or maybe today's flippant reactions are indications market is running out of catalysts short term. (Labor market may take weeks to figure itself out). Only a print of 200K tomorrow may wake this bunch up as SP earnings season effect wanes. (04-05)

 

All in, market is back within the range it has travelled for weeks now. Nothing has really changed as the confusing domestic Economic data keeps investors confused, while the earning high has waned.

Ahead of the open, (09-05)

The morning noise ‘supposedly’ cratering the market was because some ‘left wing’ potential Greek PM said austerity was null and void.  But, this isn’t the true backdrop.

  

The true culprit is tier 1 economic data is a ‘void’ and QE (judging by Gold/TSY’s) is a ‘null’.   Simply, there is nothing for investors to go on!  This goes back to last week’s note on market out of ‘catalytic’ events.  No eco’ data on the calendar to believe in growth and no QE as a market alternative.  It wasn’t too long ago the market had both and debating which one will win out (escape velocity growth or QE).  SP component earnings were done with a few weeks ago as trends became known and rallied the market. Now, the market with nothing to go on is using small caps (ie FOSL for retail, RAX for clouds) as examples for the general market.  The violent reactions are indicative of what was discussed earlier in the earnings season where high multiple stocks are being reset on valuation.  If you don’t show growth as you once did, we will punish you is the market message.  Still, using FOSL as a proxy for all ‘growth’ and/or European connection is not warranted as it is company specific, but investors are shooting first.  All peer names in this category were whipped early, but recovered substantially by close (ie LULU, RL, UA). Cloud peers bounced as well.

  

Today’s rally back to 1363SP from 1347 and Monday’s reversal from overnight lows shows ‘Bears’ are not so comfortable either as they cover instead of pressing more shorts on.  The critical level is high SP1350’s on a closing basis.  Although, high beta is being reset in spots, most of the trading is still ES/ETF shifted.  It’s going to remain a bumpy ride as ‘headline risk’ from Europe will dictate until clarity on growth.

Ahead of the open, (10-05)

 Yesterday, concluded that it will be a bumpy ride as European ‘headline’ risk will dictate and did it ever today!.  The day was full of chaos as dozens of headlines flowed seemingly every market hour on the subject of Greece.   Unfortunately, it wasn’t all Greece, but instead Spain and the country’s banks that was the focus story with yields climbing over 6%.   EFSF help or not for the banks is the big market question.  To discuss all the other particular headlines is futile, it’s for the continuing ES/ ETF trade for fast traders to whip market around overnight/intraday.  For most investors, the Euro stresses are getting too complex to do anything.

  

All in, what matters is end of day is where the market finishes.  Today’s close was barely at support after rally couldn’t hold all of the reversal.  Although, we’ve been in a range bound trade for weeks, resistance and supports are quite easily penetrated before gliding back.

  

Hopefully, the market will look at the initial claims for some clarity on the domestic side of things.  After last week’s number coming back to stabilization levels of ~360’s K, it will be vital to see this again.   Also, China might get some airtime as it has some data in the next ~24hours.   AMC, CSCO  said enterprise is on hold watching ‘ macro’ issues andPCLN  cited EU concerns as well.   All in, it looks like we’re heading for a long summer as everyone (investors/corporations) are beginning to play the waiting game all over again.