Quiet Holiday Week? Not So Fast!

Here I offer some thoughts on last week's numbers for employment, auto sales, and commodity prices.

Gallup announced on Thursday that it is reviewing much of its methodology after  finishing the 2012 election  24th out of 28 polling firms in accuracy.

There has been some confusion about the quality of the ongoing Q4 earnings season, which has seen some 47% of the S&P 500 companies report to date (and with 53% still left things can certainly change). The confusion apparently is that this has been a "good" earning season so far. Nothing could be further from the truth, and as Goldman shows in its midterm Q4 earnings report, the reality, not spin, is that earnings are tracking at $24.03, or some 6% below the consensus estimate at the start of earnings season of $25.51.

China's trade surplus hit a 3-year high this month as import growth plunged. That setup raises many questions. First, let's consider the initial story. Bloomberg reports China’s Import Growth Misses Estimates for June China’s imports rose less than anticipated in June, pushing the trade surplus to a three-year high and adding pressure on the government to support demand as the global economy slows.

By Ploutos:For what was supposed to be a quiet finish to the week before Friday's early bond market close preceding the Memorial Day holiday, the one corporate bond deal that was printed Thursday proved noteworthy.

Things are looking better for Greece as the latest report is Greek coalition talks break down in acrimony. Greece appeared to be heading for fresh national elections after last-ditch coalition talks chaired by the country’s president ended in mutual mud-slinging by the conservative, socialist and leftwing leaders.

By Kapitall:Earnings season is well under way, and next week over 500 companies are reporting their latest quarterly earnings. Do you have a watch-list prepared? For a closer look at next week's roster, we ran a screen. We began by screening next week's reporting companies for those with positive market sentiment, outperforming the market with performance above 20% for the last quarter.