"Barry Ritholtz" is an American author, newspaper columnist, blogger, equities analyst, CIO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and guest commentator on Bloomberg Television. He is also a former contributor to CNBC and TheStreet.com.

Prior to founding Ritholtz Wealth Management, Ritholtz was CEO of Fusion IQ, prior to that chief market strategist at Maxim Group in New York, an investment bank.

More Barry Ritholtz on Wikipedia.

There was a lot of trepidation on Monday after Friday's sell-off and when things didn't go from bad to worse, it has emboldened dip buyers to step in. But most of the investment community hasn't realized that the economy is slowing and that earnings are reflecting that and valuations are going to have to be adjusted.

The president has little budgetary room -- and even less political capital -- for any grand projects. If he can extend his tax cuts, it would be a big victory.

It looks like we will have quarter of a point increases for the rest of our natural lives or the next recession, whichever comes first. The Fed has not shown an ability to engineer a soft landing.

The market is going to be on hold until the Fed's decision is out. We will be looking for hints that the rate increases are coming to an end and if that's the case, we may see a rally in stocks.

Overall, you're going to see a pretty strong opening. A lot of semi numbers were pretty good last night.

We may be in for a good trading session today. The good news from Japan and a pull-back in oil are positive, not only for companies but for consumers as well.

Markets don't make a top and then slide, topping is a process. Typically markets make an initial top, back off, try to surpass it, and can't do it.

I'm looking for really good earnings, and I don't know that it's going to juice the market all that much. In order to go significantly higher, what's the catalyst?

Good earnings never hurt the market, and some of the results from the companies that reported yesterday are strong enough to sustain the buying momentum in stocks.