REVIEW

The market opened the week at SPX 1797, dipped to 1792 early Monday, then rallied with only one notable pullback to 1842 by Friday. And all this occurred during market hours, as the only gap opening on the week was a lower one on Thursday. For the week the SPX/DOW gained 2.3%, the NDX/NAZ gained 2.9%, and the DJ World index rose 2.4%. On the economic front negative reports again outpaced positive ones. On the uptick: wholesale/business inventories, export/import prices and the M1-multiplier. On the downtick: retail sales, industrial production, capacity utilization, the WLEI, plus the budget deficit and weekly jobless claims increased. Next week we get reports on the NY/Philly FED, the CPI/PPI and Housing.

LONG TERM: bull market

The bull market of 2009 is now in its fifth year. Historically five years is just about as old as they get. Since 1929 there have been 13 bull markets, and…