In case you missed it, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning that Nonfarm Payrolls, which is one of the most closely followed gauges regarding the state of the economy, was a big "miss" for the month of March. While economists had projected that the economy would create 245,000 new jobs last month, it turns out that only 126,000 new jobs were born.

For those keeping score at home, this was the fewest number of new jobs created in 15 months and the second biggest "miss" by analyst estimates since November 2008. What's more the new job totals for the last two months were cut by a hefty 69,000, bringing the average for the first quarter down below 200,000.

Although markets were closed for trading Friday, the reaction in the futures market was swift. Bond yields dove as the 10-year quickly fell to 1.81% after the report (from Thursday's close of 1.904%). And S&P 500 futures dropped a quick 20 points.

At issue here is the concern that the economy, which had been humming along at the end of last year, may be falling victim to more than just the unseasonably cold weather and the West Coast port strike. Our furry friends in the bear camp remind us that the ongoing rally in the U.S. dollar may be impacting more than just the profits of multi-national corporations and that oil's swan dive is also putting a damper on the economy. Those seeing the glass as at least half-empty also point out that the U.S. consumer is most definitely NOT spending their savings from the gas pump.

If you will recall, the economic data has been coming in on the punk side for most of the year. And the only real bright spot has been the Nonfarm Payroll and Unemployment ...

As part of my new Chief Investment Officer gig at Sowell Management Services (which was recently named as one of the top 15 TAMP's in the country), I have been charged with providing a succinct summary (I know, not my ...

To be sure, the current stock market seems to have little memory from one day to the next. This is evidenced by the fact that Monday's gain marked the first time since February 17 that the S&P 500 managed to ...

If you've been paying attention, it should come as no surprise to learn that US equities continued to remain under pressure last week. For those keeping score at home, take note that the S&P 500 suffered the second largest weekly ...

If there is one thing the market hates the most, it is uncertainty. And the bottom line at this point in time is that there is a fair amount of uncertainty in the game. Suddenly there is new geopolitical uncertainty ...

The question of the day is why the stock market has suddenly fallen out of bed. Three days ago, the S&P 500 was knocking on the door of a new all-time high. Three days ago, the NASDAQ was flirting with ...

The prevailing back-and-forth, up-and-down market environment is being caused by the extreme cross currents that exist in the market at the present time. On one hand, new money continues to flow into the market from the BOJ and ECB QE ...

I was recently named Chief Investment Officer at Sowell Management Services, a registered investment advisor that is responsible for about $500 million of client assets. Part of the gig is to communicate all things market related to the portfolio managers, ...

With the S&P 500 approaching the recent all-time high again, the question of the day is if the prevailing trend will continue. To clarify, the trend we are referencing is the propensity for traders to sell into each and every ...

This week's Fed-induced joyride to the upside certainly made investors feel better about the state of the current stock market environment. However, the simple fact remains that it has now been more than a month since the S&P 500 has ...

Obviously, the key to yesterday's joyride to the upside, which saw the S&P 500 surge nearly 46 points (or 2.22%) in about an hour and both the smallcap and midcap indices vault to new all-time highs, was the Fed statement. ...

It's "Fed Day" once again, so in all honesty, not much else matters in the early going today. The key to this fine Wednesday morning is that the Fed is expected to drop the word "patient" from the statement accompanying ...