For the second straight day, the market closed poorly despite intraday optimism over the possibility of another round of quantitative easing. It was a feeble excuse for buying in the first place, but it might have worked if we didn't have the issues in Europe hanging over our heads. A comment by House Speaker John Boehner calling a deal on the U.S. debt ceiling "a crapshoot" didn't help matters either.
Technically, the market has been in good shape to find support, but the news flow is sapping the bulls of confidence and the bears are doing well shorting the strength as a result.
I'm hopeful that earnings season will help to produce better action in individual stocks, but the macro matters don't appear to be going away anytime soon. I cringe to think that we still have at least a couple of more weeks of political wrangling over the debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 deadline, which will probably get pushed out anyway....
