Thursday

Today, we saw a big rally in our markets after two days of losses. In general, this rally is contributed to the fact that second quarter earnings continure to top estimates. In the Dow, today was the highest close since November 4. We are now up 40% from the 12 year closing low we reaching in March. Specifically, the rally was led by the 6.9% surge in General Electric. It looks like they may make it after all. Also, Motorola soard 9.4% with a $26 billion profit when analysts were expecting a loss. All is well in the world today, it seems! DJIA +83.74 S&P 500 +11.6 NASDAQ +16.54

Wednesday

Today, it came out the Cash for Clunkers is really helping the new car sales. However, for the public, the rules are a real obstacle. They are incredibly complicated, but we will see how it goes. President Obama took the sharpest jabs yet at his critics accusing them of rallying the opposition with scare tactics and hypocrisy. Despite all of the discomfort, the Fed's beige book report showed that the pace of economic decline is stabilizing. All of this resulted in a lull for our markets. DJIA -26.00 S&P 500 -4.44 NASDAQ -7.75

Monday

Today was a sluggish day in the markets. The markets were slightly down until near the close of the day. This was caused by some good and some bad things in the economy. Verizon is talking about cutting approximately 8000 more jobs. Also, the SEC is taking steps against broker-dealers to curb short-selling. Lending is still tight at banks because they are still refraining from taking risks. Overall, the total amount of loans shrank by 2.8% in the second quarter. President Obama spoke out about seeking broader ties with China and developing "mutual interests." Fortunately, new home sales are up 11% in June from the previous month. As you can see, it is just a plethora of things going on today in our markets! DJIA +15.27 S&P 500 +2.92 NASDAQ +1.93

TGIF

Overall, this week has been great for the markets and economy. We saw a slow start at the beginning of the week and topped off with a big rally. Today we didn't see a rally like yesterday, but the indices are looking up. We are hearing that President Obama is starting to push his healthcare plan even more and becoming more aggressive about it. Also, he is really pressing lawmakers to try and wrap up the healthcare overhaul by the end of the year. We shall see what happens! Have a great weekend! DJIA +23.95 S&P 500 +2.97 NASDAQ -7.64

Toe Tappin' Thursday

Here at New Perspectives, we are doing a dance today! The DOW is up over 2% and crosses 9000 points. It was been a long time since we have seen this kind of performance. Several big things led to this rally. The rally was sparked by good news being released about profits and housing. For example, today Ford posted a $2.3 billions profit for the second quarter, and GM is seeing global sales really pick up. Another fuel to the fire today is that a better-than-forecasted report on claims for unemployment benefits was released. We are relieved and excited to see our economy and markets beginning to really pick up after such a hard time. DJIA +188.03 S&P 500 +22.22 NASDAQ +47.22

Wednesday Blues

Today was a slow day in the American markets. Our string of gains has been officially broken. It was a quiet day as we had no flood of buyers and sellers. In addition, oil prices suffered a pullback after several days of gains. We also saw that healthcare stocks were weak because of two companies in the sector that provided earnings short of analysts expectations. Amidst all of this, technology stocks are still remaining strong due to a strong report posted by Apple yesterday afternoon. Even though we are seeing a small dip in the markets, we are steadily gaining ground. DJIA -34.68 S&P 500 -.51 NASDAQ +10.18

Fantastic Friday

All's well in the markets and economy today. Overall, everything was quiet. For the week, the Dow was up 7.3%. This is very encouraging news after the rollercoaster we have been through lately. DJIA +32.13 S&P 500 -.36 NASDAQ +1.56

Terrific Thursday

Today, several major players in our economy received good news about their earnings. Google posted second quarter earnings of $1.48 billion, and revenues were up 3%. Also, IBM posted earnings that increased to 12% up to $3.1 billion. However, IBM's revenues dropped 13%, but they are hopeful. They have already raised their forecast for the rest of 2009. DJIA +95.61 S&P 500 +8.06 NASDAQ +22.13

Wild Wednesday

Today the stocks rallied! This is the fifth largest gain this year in the markets! There are several reasons for this increase. The rally was led by the technology and financial stocks. Also, Intel posted a very optimistic outlook. After earnings were so grim, they are expecting great things this quarter. In addition, credit card issuers posted big gains as well while delinquency rates fell. Overall, it was a great day in the markets. DJIA +256.72 S&P 500 +26.84 NASDAQ +63.17

Monday's Recap

Today has been a great day for the markets and economy. I am very anxious to hear that in today's economic crisis, divorce rates are down! People are delaying divorces and being forced to stay in unpleasant situations because they are afraid of being alone in this time of crisis. I guess this is good and bad! Also, today the Dow rose 2.3%. This increase was fueled by gains posted in the banking components. Banks had some favorable returns this period. So, people are slowly starting to gain confidence in the markets again. DJIA +185.16 S&P 500 +21.92 NASDAQ +37.18

Thursday's Scoop

In the world today, it was a drab day. Some people are saying there needs to be yet another economic stimulus package. The previous one is working like they planned, just not a quickly as they thought or hoped it would. However, now economists are claiming there doesn't need to be another stimulus package. The debt taken on is already too large! On a good note, GM is expecting to emerge from bankruptcy protection tomorrow. One of the things that made today sluggish is the retail posting. Earnings are a good bit less than expected. However, things have to be picking up because everywhere I go to eat or shop, people are lined up. So, I feel like we are coming out of this recession, slowly. DJIA +4.76 S&P 500 +3.12 NASDAQ +5.38

A New Quarter Begins

I know it has been a few days since you all have heard from me. It has been very busy around here at New Perspectives! It is quarterly report time! The big news lately, of course, is the Michael Jackson Memorial. However, in the economy, we are expecting stocks to be a little sluggish during the summer just like our weather. Today, the stocks have been on a rollercoaster. The DOW was down around 75 points at one point today but made significant gains. The other major indexes only had minor gains or losses. DJIA +14.81 S&P 500 -1.47 NASDAQ +1.00