Maximum Frustration

We have been having technical problems with our Internet connectivity in the office, which is why my blog posts have been sparse. I am hopeful that we will be back running smoothly sometime today.

In the meantime, the market were fairly flat yesterday, but are under a little selling pressure this morning. The jobless claims released this morning were a bit on the high side, which increases the odds of the economy slipping into recession.

For most people, it already feels like we are in recession, but statictically we haven't seen enough data to confirm in, at least officially.

Reseach In Motion (RIMM) reported strong earnings last night, boosting that stock nicely. I hope this also bodes well for AAPL. A downgrade this morning of CSCO and a weak outlook at Garmin (GRMN) are offsetting the positive comments from RIMM.

There were several earnings estimate cuts for the brokers this morning, which is weighing on those stocks and some of the other financials.

Energy stocks are strong, with oil up again near $106. I don't know why oil continues to rally in the face of building reserves and ample supply. I guess there are enough factions out there that benefit from higher oil.

Asian markets were up across the board overnight; the 10-year yield is down to 3.55%; and gold is a little lower today also, on furthe dollar strength.

Technically the markets are still in good shape, and this 2-day pullback so far has been mild in relation to the strength of the last rally. Tomorrow's jobs report looms large.

long GS, AAPL