Summer Trading

Rumors, speculation, knee-jerk reactions - all three are fairly commonplace during the summer and we had plenty of all three present today.

More hedge fund speculation continues to pressure stocks. To be sure, without much more to focus on (what happened to Monday merger mania?), you have to trade by what you see and today simply didn't provide the bulls with much ammo.

The good news is that this will change later this week as traders face a set of new data to look through. Looking ahead, we have reports on consumer confidence and new home sales tomorrow, durable goods on Wednesday, and the FOMC decision on Thursday along with the GDP. That should keep us busier other than in constant reaction mode to the latest rumor du jour.