Thoughts

Broker conferences in the next couple of weeks should increase the news flow.

Plenty of tradable noise, not alot of impact news flow ... fortunately! Things start to get interesting next week in terms of news flow. A ton of broker conferences are coming up in the next couple weeks, and they give companies a chance to update guidance, change tone, etc. Then it gets quiet until earnings in October. Look for a little more action for the balance of the month.

Big pharma is catching a nice bid, while tech is catching a brutal beating.

Big pharma is catching a nice bid, with MRK and BMY both strong.

UBS raised price targets on some momentum software names: VMW, CRM and RHT.

Speaking of dividends, I noticed PM, not MO, raised its dividend to $0.64 from $0.58. Philip Morris International goes ex-div on Sept. 22. That is a 1.2% payout, and the stock is up big today.

They hate tech today. HPQ, CSCO and MSFT are the worst performers in the DJIA. NSM's report is driving a lot of it, reinforcing negative sentiment generated by INTC last week. This could be an inventory correction; NatSemi says sell-through is still OK. Techs will take their beating today, but don't count on seasonal strength not showing up in fourth quarter like usual.

Corn inventory is down, and price realization expectations are up. Surprisingly, ethanol leader GPRE is up nearly 3%. It must have some nice hedges paying off, because this is not good for ethanol.

Average returns on interest-bearing deposit accounts slipped to 0.99% percent in July.... It is the first time its measure has dipped below 1% since the 1950s.

With bank deposits paying nothing, risk-averse capital is being forced into government bonds, which also are paying next to nothing. (I guess next to nothing is better than nothing!)

Many are looking to dividends for income. Many would argue that bonds are safe because they pay off at maturity, whereas equities are risky. Fair enough, but if you never sell the stock, then all that matters is that the dividend is safe, so you may not be in a much different risk/reward position owning dividend stocks long term. "As long as the check shows up," as they say.

I think that stocks can continue their run for the rest of the year.