Market Direction Week of July 21, 2014

Market Direction: BULLISH alert issued 06/19/2014

Last Week Review: Markets bounced around last week, reacting to a range of factors. Solid earnings results from many large U.S. companies as well as better-than-expected U.S. manufacturing readings and fresh data suggesting the Chinese economy is stabilizing all helped support stocks. Grabbing much of the attention, however, were geopolitical concerns including news of the downed Malaysia Airlines passenger jet near the Russia-Ukraine border and the Israeli ground invasion into the Gaza Strip which dragged markets lower mid-week. By week's end, the S&P 500 was up 0.5%, with a solid 7.0% year-to-date gain.

How the market finished last week, the S&P 500 added 0.5%, the Nasdaq 0.4%, and the Dow gained 0.9%.

This Week: Earnings season continues next week, with several heavy hitters set to release earnings.

In addition to several big-name company earnings, investors will also be keeping an eye on rising tensions between Russia and the West -- after the apparent shoot-down of Malaysian Airlines passenger jet on Thursday, in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border. While the details of what happened are still vague, the markets are on edge and waiting to see how Western leaders respond. Most believe that Moscow was tied to the missiles used.

Economic Calendar: Consumer Price Index (7/22), Existing Home Sales (7/22), New Home Sales (7/24), Durable Goods Orders (7/25)

Some of the major earnings announcements on deck: AAPL, FB, KO, BA.

$tockMarketDirection is in a BULLISH posture. We strongly encourage our many bloggers/followers to monitor positions closely, exercise proper money management strategies and to monitor $tockMarketDirection for ALERTS that we may issue advising of a change in our current posture. Cha-ching.