Stock Market Blog -May 16th

On Monday the DOW rocketed up over 400 points, only to give back some of those gains on Thursday and Friday. The market was up after Europe announced a 1 trillion dollar bailout program over the weekend. Here we go again with trillion dollar bailouts!

All time highs: GLD, EGO, SLW, BIDU, DTV, OC, SY

BIDU rallied as it split 10 for 1 this week!
CSCO dropped after reporting good earnings



New unemployment claims held steady this week, coming in at 444,000 (chart).
This week four more banks were shutdown by the FDIC! (list).

Next week (Economic reports): The three remaining DOW companies will report earnings next week: HPQ, HD, and WMT. Also reporting are LOW and TGT.

Don't forget that Friday is also Options expiration day.

Market commentary: After the big sell-off a week earlier, the market recovered some of the losses early this week, but then started selling off again on Thursday & Friday. The longer term picture I believe is that the market will sell off again, perhaps to the February lows. With options expiration this week, and a high put-call ratio on the indexes, I expect the market to hold up or even rally this week.

Commodities:
Oil prices continued to fall, closing just under $72 per barrel. If the dollar rally continues, expect even lower oil prices.
Natural Gas was up, closing around $4.30.
Gold prices rallied to an all time high, closing around $1227.
The US Dollar index was up again, and closed just over 86.
The 30 year Bond was up late in the week, closing around $122.

News:
Stocks: $2.9 trillion on the sidelines
How Four Banks Scored a Perfect Trading Quarter
Déjà Vu All Over Again as China Hit by Second Bear Market in 12 Months
Gold Spikes To All Time Highs Amid Massive Printing Of Currencies And Worry
Gold's 'ugly sister' gets a second look
Gold Heats Up As Athens Burns
The second debt storm
Fannie Mae: Where the Bankrupt Only Get More Bankrupt
Android Finally Takes a Bite Out of the iPhone's Market Share
Food-stamp tally nears 40 million, sets record