Stocks managed to pull out a little counter-trend gain today.
This is a light week for economic news.
We are getting into the earnings season.
After the bell, both Netflix and IBM beat their earnings estimates, but missed on top line revenues.
Both are fine examples of low growth companies using accounting games to provide the appearance of vitality. IBM has been shrinking for quite some time, and Netflix, while it has potential, needs to change its model badly.
Or perhaps it would be more correct to say it should expand its portfolio of activities. But not being a true content provider, or a supplier of the pipe that carry its products, it is an interesting strategic position.
Let's see how the wash and rinse cycle proceeds. The Street would like to see stocks move higher now.
I turned to CNBC for relief from Trish Regan's pretty but nasal banality.
I noticed that CNBC had Rick Harrison, the purveyor of a Las Vegas pawn shop, and reality show star on as a guest commentator on macro-economics, providing policy advice. He may know the retail trade, but public economic policy, not so much.
I kept waiting for Steve Liesman to come on and provide the comic relief that Chumlee ordinarily delivers to give some entertainment value to Pawn Stars. Larry Kudlow was doing his schtick earlier on as 'Pops.'
The intellectual poverty of financial television is appalling: five miles wide, and an inch deep. No wonder the ratings were plummeting. See the quote from my friend Arby at the top of the page. Our elite ruling class is in the throes of cultural dementia.
Have a pleasant evening.
