Despite Google’s blowout quarter and a green day for stocks on Friday, all of the major indexes closed down sharply for the week. In fact in was one of the steepest weekly declines in almost a year. For the week the Dow (chart) finished down 1.4%, the Nasdaq (chart) -2.45%, the S&P 500 (chart) -2.06% and the Russell 2000 (chart) fell almost 3%. Right now it appears earnings reporting season is being overshadowed by the governments inability to reach a deal on the debt ceiling increase as the deadline is closing in. Call it what you will but the political jockeying must come to an end or we could indeed be in for a very turbulent market environment.

There is too much uncertainty for me to have any confidence in taking on any new risk. Couple this with earnings reporting season kicking into high gear next week and you can almost count on much higher volatility in the markets.

Have a good weekend 🙂

~George