I will be at the Rosenblatt Securities Exchange CEO Conference all day Wednesday at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. This is one of the largest gatherings of stock exchange CEOs globally and all the trading platforms.    Read More

IPOs hit the wall—did the Blackstone announcement put them over the edge? Another day, another indifferent reception to an IPO.    Read More

Dollar index breaking through to new lows as gold hits another high, most commodities also up 1 to 3 percent. Gold stocks up 2 to 3 percent pre-open.    Read More

Dow closes at 52-week high, S&P 500 just behind. Big week for commodity stocks, with many up double digits.   Read More

The S&P 500 is up 4 percent this week, it's best gain in a long time, and it's a simple story: Alcoa and a number of retailers are all signaling that the economy is slowly improving, and for the moment "slowly" is good enough for the stock market.    Read More

Stocks futures have weakened on the stronger dollar... due to Mr. Bernanke's comments that monetary policy could be tightened as a recovery takes hold.    Read More

Going into the retail sales reports today, retail analysts were raising estimates for third quarter sales (remember many retailers have quarters that end in October).    Read More

Home building stocks are recovering from their recent selloff as House Speaker Pelosi is discussing extending--and possibly expanding--the first time homebuyers tax credit.  Congressman Rangel is also saying it should be extended.   Read More

Kohls vs. JC Penney: battle of the titans. Interesting backstory on the battle between mid-priced department stores.    Read More

Commodities and commodity stocks higher pre-open on Alcoa earnings. While Alcoa is getting all the attention, Australia is again helping Asian markets due to a much better than expected jobs report there...Australia reported an increase of 40,600 jobs in August versus a forecast of a drop of 10,000 jobs.    Read More