Despite earnings that are coming in better than expected the market is still jittery. The latest ADP report was lighter than expectations showing that only 169K private sector jobs were added in April, the second straight month of sub-200K job creation. It is uncertain if Greece will be able to make its next debt payment due next week. And Fed Chair Janet Yellen's interview today, where she stated equity market valuations are "generally quite high" and "there are potential dangers there," certainly didn't help matters.
However, there has been some good economic news too. ISM Services (which are a much larger portion of the economy) came in at 57.8 percent, compared with 51.5 percent for the manufacturing index. The strong dollar, which has been blamed for many recent economic ills has paused, down more than 5 percent since mid-March and oil prices are now back over $60/bbl, the high for 2015. Economic picture seems murky, but growing corporate earnings should be supportive of higher equity markets, says Voya Investment.
