Stocks eked out modest gains on Friday but for the fourth week in a row the major indexes lost some ground. For the week the Dow (chart) S&P 500 (chart) Nasdaq (chart) and the Russell 2000 (chart) retreated less than 1%. One meaningful technical indicator market technicians would highlight is that all of these indexes are hovering right around their 50-day moving averages. This is on the heels of the G.D.P. report issued on Thursday which indicated that economic growth is still very tepid and another report out indicating a jump in unemployment claims continued to add to the skittishness of the markets.

So far the “Sell in May” and go away adage is holding true to form but at least the retracement so far has been orderly and some market analysts would even say healthy. Now that Q1 earnings reporting season for the most part is over, what will be the next catalyst to move the markets? For now seemingly all eyes will indeed be on the upcoming economic reports in June via the consumer, the manufacturing indexes, the real estate market and the most critical component the job market.

Have a safe Memorial Day holiday 🙂

~George