likely help bullish trends to continue. Next week will bring us a lot of the financial and technology reports. If the positive earnings also include those sectoEarnings – The first big week of quarterly earnings reports started a bit shaky, with a disappointing report from Alcoa (AA), however,it got much better quickly as several companies in various sectors, including Costco (COST) and Pepico (PEP) reported earnings above expectations. Add to this a report from McDonald’s (MCD) that their third quarter earnings will come in above expectations, and the market made a big jump toward the end of the week. The reports so far also suggest that consumer-based companies will do well overall. The market tends to be very sensitive to what the consumer is doing, so a big quarter for those stocks will likely help bullish trends to continue. Next week will bring us a lot of the financial and technology reports. If the positive earnings also include those sector as several companies in various sectors, including Costco (COST) and Pepico (PEP) reported earnings above expectations. Add to this a report from McDonald’s (MCD) that their third quarter earnings will come in above expectations, and the market made a big jump toward the end of the week. The reports so far also suggest that consumer-based companies will do well overall. The market tends to be very sensitive to what the consumer is doing, so a big quarter for those stocks will likely help bullish trends to continue. Next week will bring us a lot of the financial and technology reports. If the positive earnings also include those sectoD) that their third quarter earnings will come in above expectations, and the market made a big jump toward the end of the week. The reports so far also suggest that consumer-based companies will do well overall. The market tends to be very sensitive to what the consumer is doing, so a big quarter for those stocks will likely help bullish trends to continue. Next week will bring us a lot of the financial and technology reports. If the positive earnings also include those secto that consumer-based companies will do well overall. The market tends to be very sensitive to what the consumer is doing, so a big quarter for those stocks will likely help bullish trends to continue. Next week will bring us a lot of the financial and technology reports. If the positive earnings also include those sectolikely help bullish trends to continue. Next week will bring us a lot of the financial and technology reports. If the positive earnings also include those sectors, we could continue to rally. If these sectors have some major disappointments, we could trend back a bit. A bullish factor right now.

Economic Reports – There were only a few economic reports last week, but they supported the bullish case. New claims for unemployment were down from previous weeks and the U.S. budget deficit continued to drop. The September Retail Sales report was down, but that was actually good news, since the drop was mostly because of a drop in gasoline prices. This is also a bullish factor right now.

Energy prices – The price of crude oil continues to decline, which can be nothing else but bullish. C