Markets opened the week on the downside and never looked back after the prior week’s five day move to the upside with a gain of 4.7% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  Again the culprit was global economic weakness as the European markets continued to struggle and investors waited for word from the Federal Reserve on their outlook for the global economy.  During Monday’s trading the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded down 250 points only to recover over half of the loss and ended down 108.08 points or 0.9% at 11401.01.  Positive news that Greece was not headed for a default helped the markets recover. Meanwhile, investors still flocked to Treasuries pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury below 2% to 1.940%.  Tuesday the equity markets had a strong start but a reversal of the good news and continued concerns about Greece stalled the rally. By days end, the S&P 500 index lost 2 points to …

It appears as though US equity markets are beginning to see the light at the end of the eurozone tunnel with encouraging news from European officials this week.  The major US equity indices had five consecutive days of gains, finishing their best week since early July.  Valuations remain attractive and investors do not want to miss a rally.  Mediocre economic data reports were shrugged off and the markets rose each day as a resolution to the European debt crisis appeared to be unfolding. 

The major US indices spent most of the day on Monday in negative territory, following global markets’ moves and more negative news from Europe.  It was suggested that rating agencies had been preparing to downgrade European banks and that German officials were assuming the Greek default was a certainty.  …

The shortened trading week turned out to be another volatile week on Wall Street.  Tuesday started to the downside for the third session in a row as European markets which had been open Monday, led the financials to the downside with more concerns regarding economic issues particularly in Greece and Italy.  The global markets also held their collective breath in the Eurozone waiting to hear from the German Supreme Court and whether they would reject lawsuits attempting to block any more euro zone bailouts.  The court rejected the lawsuits which sent the Euro and European markets into rally mode on Wednesday spilling over to US markets and particularly US financials.  The German DAX 30 index surged 4.1% and the Stoxx Europe 600 index added 3.1%.  In Greece, the National Bank of Greece surged 23% on the news.  Also in Germany better than expected industrial production news spurred a gain of 6% …

The markets and the weather both brightened up on Monday with financials leading the way.  For the first time in weeks the financial sector didn’t wake up to some sort of negative or uncertain news from Europe and the large US banks helped lead the global markets higher.  They were joined by their brethren in the financial sector - namely the insurance stocks as damage from Hurricane Irene did not damage the east coast as much as expected.  Improving US economic news also cheered the markets with consumer confidence in July growing faster than expected. 

By the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 254.71 points or 2.26% to end at 11539.25 and the tech heavy NASDAQ outpaced the DJIA with a gain of 3.32% to 2562.11. While volume was light …