Ara Melkonians/ Update#2/ week of January 17, 2011

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Tuesday! Equity markets are positive once again this morning. The S&P has completed seven consecutive weeks of positive closes, and really except for the month of November, the stock market as a whole has been on the rise since the 1st of Sept.

Just when we seem to be getting some momentum in credit markets, we get another setback. The 10 year note closed at 3.30% on Friday, its lowest Friday close of the year, only to give back all the gains of the last 1/2 of last week in the opening hour of trading this morning. We presently sit at 3.39% . . . again.

Earnings season continues this week with Comerica their latest quarterly earnings this morning. Not only did they beat the Street estimates, but also they announced that they will be acquiring Sterling Bank for $10 a share. Delta Airlines missed their earnings target set forth by the analysts.

So, though light, earnings really didn't have much impact on the markets this morning. The NASDAQ is hampered by Aaple's $12 drop in stock price after Steve Jobs this morning announced that he will be taking an indefinite medical leave of absence. The tech world will definitely miss his ingenuity.

There are no major economic news releases today except for the Empire State Index which had little impact on markets when it was released. Tomorrow brings us the report on building permits and housing starts, and Thursday brings us the largest offering of economic news of the week. We'll have to wait and see if Thursday has any big surprises.

I hope all of you have a terrific Tuesday and a very productive and profitable rest of the week