The market continued to move higher on Friday and wrapped up the holiday-shortened week with a small gain. After seeing no return in the equity market during the past decade, investors apparently had given up in stocks. According to the Investment Company Institute, investors pulled $210 billion from domestic equity funds and $24.4 billion from non-US stock funds since Jan 2008. During the same period, investors added $559 billion into bond funds. It is no wonder that bond yields keep hitting historical lows these days. I remember that during the dot com bubble just 10 years ago, investors put hundreds of billions into equity funds and only to see them evaporate two years later. Maybe 10 years are too short to forget.
 
Most major sectors finished the session higher led by energy and health care. The CRB commodity index rose 0.7%. The US dollar was mixed against most currencies. Treasury yields were higher. The three-month US LIBOR was unchanged. The VIX index dropped less than 1 point. The market breath was positive on both NYSE and Nasdaq. The volume was neutral compared to the previous session.

The market continued to rise on Thursday with some help from better-than-expected domestic news. Initial jobless claims for the latest reporting week came in at 451K, better than 470K expected. The trade deficit for July also came in better-than-expected at $42.8 billion instead of $47.3 billion widely expected. Overall, the volume remained lackluster and this may change soon as September traditionally is a very volatile month.
 
Most major sectors finished the session higher led by financials and telecom. The CRB commodity index dipped 0.4%. The US dollar was lower against most currencies. Treasury yields were higher. The three-month US LIBOR was unchanged. The VIX index dropped less than 1 point. The market breath was positive on both NYSE and Nasdaq. The volume was neutral compared to the previous session.

The market rebounded on Wednesday. Stronger than expected demand at a Portuguese debt auction provided early support. In the afternoon, the latest Fed's Beige Book showed that consumer spending has increased on balance despite some cautious tone remains. Volume continued to be on the light side with less than 1 billion shares changed hands on the NYSE. The NYSE 50-day moving average volume has decreased to 1.1 billion shares compared with 1.5 billion just two months ago.
 
Most major sectors finished the session higher led by financials and industrials. The CRB commodity index rose 0.2%. The US dollar was lower against most currencies. Treasury yields were higher. The three-month US LIBOR was unchanged. The VIX index dropped less than 1 point. The market breath was positive on both NYSE and Nasdaq. The volume was neutral compared to the previous session.

The market tumbled on Tuesday following the Labour Day weekend. All three major indexes finished the session lower by at least 1% and gave back some of the 5% gains from earlier in the month. There is no obvious reason behind today's sell-off. Some may attribute today's weakness to renewed concerns over the health of European banks. But that could be just an excuse. The yen reached a fresh 15-year high of 83.5 yen per dollar in today's trading.
 
All 10 major sectors finished the session lower led by financials and energy. The CRB commodity index rose 0.4%. The US dollar was higher against most currencies. Treasury yields were lower. The three-month US LIBOR was unchanged. The VIX index surged more than 2 points. The market breath was negative on both NYSE and Nasdaq. The volume was neutral compared to the previous session.

Market is closed for Labor Day.