We're going to see more of the same for the next few weeks, unless something comes in that indicates a pick-up in activity in the economy or on the corporate level.
But after all the corporate governance issues, there's a tendency now of erring on the side of ultra-conservatism in terms of what companies say about future quarters and that's going to continue.
Today the market caught the double-dip disease. Recent economic data, like yesterday's [Tuesday's] consumer confidence number, seems to corroborate opinion about deceleration in growth.
It will be one of those days where we wait and see and hope and pray that tomorrow's CPI data will not be taken with too much negativity.
This is sort-of the real dead period for the quarter and it's also the summer, and a lot of people are on vacation.
It is a different world.
But it's also a dangerous period. There isn't a lot of news and the volume is low, so the market is going to move more on rumor than on fact.
Enron is providing the counterforce right now. It's undermining a number of industries such as utilities, banks, insurance and energy companies.
The retail sales number today reinforces the notion that the consumer hasn't fallen apart. Today's market is encouraging from the perspective that there is less of an Enron hangover.
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