Stock Market update -Oct 18th

The market continued to rally this week, taking out the prior rally high from mid September. We could very well see a rally all the way back to the highs of earlier this year, though 'earnings' will probably be the determining factor -it could go either way. Next week will be a very busy earnings week (see company list below).

The Dollar dropped, so Gold rallied, as did commodities. Bonds also rallied!
WMT saw a huge drop after warning on earnings. NFLX dropped after earnings.

New all time highs:    ATVI, ADBE, NKE, CRM, LGF, RAI
All time lows:     
Pops    TRIP, YOKU      Drops:      NFLX, WMT  
Mergers/Deals:  Dell to buy EMC...

Next week:  Economic reports,

This week's charts:

WMT: 4 years of gains disappear in 1 year!

Other DOW stocks...

Earnings:      

Mon	HAL, IBM, MS, VRX
Tue	CMG, JPM, VZ, UTX, VMW, YHOO
Wed	AXP, BA, EBAY, GM KMI, KO,
Thu	AMZN, CAT, GOOGL, MSFT, MCD, MMM
Fri	PG

S&P 500 -still moving back up

CBOE VIX -continues to drop
10yr Interest Rates -dropping
Labor Force Participation Rate (10 year chart)

Commodities/Futures (charts):

Natural Gas dropped a bit, closing near 2.42

Crude Oil was mostly unchanged, closing near 47.26

Gold was up again, closing near 1177 -approaching 1200

The 30 year Bond was up a bit, closing near 158.53  -could be going to 160

The US Dollar was down a bit,  closing near 94.77

NEWS:

Stocks close higher for third week as market expects easy Fed policy
Black swan risk rises to highest level ever
ETFs are getting ready to take over the world
Why There's No Better Time to Buy Commodities

Wal-Mart may need a decade to get its ‘mojo’ back
Alibaba makes $3.6 billion offer for 'China's YouTube'
China could be what determines whether the bottom is in for commodities