Massive power outage until 10 pm tonight

Readers, there was no Marias posting last night and there will not be one tonight because at 3 pm Wednesday Bloomfield Township experienced a massive power outage from the violent afternoon storms. Power was restored at 10 pm Thursday night  31 hours without power. Thankfully, the heat let up somewhat so it wasn't as miserable as it might have been. No access to news so don't know what went on with the markets the last two days but will endeavor to catch up tomorrow and put out the next posting. 

Dow, S&P 500 fall as financials drag; Nasdaq at record

It was yet another day of investors running away from cyclical stocks and towards the safe haven of tech as the Dow plunged 208 points and the Nasdaq a modest bump of 24.  Or as more likely the case, a day of profit-taking after the enormously successful close of Q2 last week. A third option is that investors may be concerned that the overall economy may not be in quite as good shape as the stock market suggests.  Whatever it was, the value index fell by 1% while growth spurted up ½%.  Volume on this first day after the holiday was still below average at 10.1 billion. 

What makes a good citizen? Voting, paying taxes, following the law top list

To close out this 4th of July weekend, I thought the following article published by the Pew Research Center was quite appropriate. As we celebrate the privilege of being a citizen of the greatest country in the world on the country's birthday, there is no more appropriate topic than what does and does not make a good citizen.  There are some very good thoughts in here. Enjoy, and enjoy your week.  

Epic Bubble

For this 245th  Independence Day celebration I submit this week's edition of PBS' WealthTrack which very appropriately tackles the subject of this very long bull market, or what they call the big market "melt up," what lies behind it and where it's going.  Hope everyone has enjoyed the holiday so far. Looking for another hot one tomorrow.  Have fun with it.  

Your Favorite Money Rules

For your weekend reading pleasure, Barry Ritholtz has conducted a great survey of his readers soliciting opinion on his Big Picture blog of what their favorite money rules are. There's a lot of wisdom contained here and, if you have the nerve, there is a link to the Twitter feed that has hundreds of more pearls. 

Wall Street hits record on robust June jobs data

The employment report, which the forecast had at a plus 700,000 jobs, actually came in at a plus 850,000 jobs for a total of 6.8 million which just thrilled investors today.  It was enough to instill even more confidence in the recovery but, with the jobs picture still not ideal, not enough to prompt fears of the Fed changing inflation policy. All three indexes rose, the Dow another 152, the Nasdaq 116 and, with a +32 the S&P reached its seventh consecutive record high. Headwinds weighing on the market are considered to diminish as we head into fall and more jobs are added. The next big event, as always, will be the June Fed minutes which will be published next week and give investors more clues on inflation and bond tapering. Due to the holiday, trading is light at 7.9 billion vs the 10.8 billion average. 

S&P 500 winning streak extends to sixth straight record close

For the first day of Q3 the S&P with an increase of 22 points once again hit another record, this time the sixth straight record close. Great economic data has given the markets plenty of confidence so once again investors are pulling out of tech and back to the Dow cyclicals with a zoom up of 131 points. But the best news per today’s expert, “Historical data shows if you have a strong first half, the second half will be even stronger.”  Jobless claims continued downward as the worker shortage continues. All eyes as always will be on Friday’s employment report but all employment and manufacturing data supports the idea of continued growth. If Friday’s report is also on target, we’ll see another up day, though there is the possibility that strong employment will stoke more inflation fears and bring the markets down. Friday’s payroll data is expected to be a plus 700K.  Volume is again a little below average at 9.5 billion.