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One step forward, one step back, the stock market is acting like the hokey pokey so far in 2010. With lots of movement but not much change, U.S. equity prices are virtually where they started the year. The Dow Jones Industrials is -2.8% since January 1, while NASDAQ is -0.5%.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday as data showed consumer spending was unexpectedly flat last month and growth of U.S. Midwest business activity slowed more than expected. Investors jumped on the chance to book gains heading into a long holiday weekend and after Wall Street's rally in the previous session. May is on track to be the worst month for stocks since February 2009 after hitting an 18-month high in late April as investors fretted over a debt crisis in Europe and its implications for global growth. The Commerce Department said April was the first month since September...

The euro was weak again early Thursday and, predictably, global stocks followed suit. Japan's Nikkei fell 1.5% overnight, major European bourses were down 1.85% to 3% in recent trading, while U.S. proxies were down 2.5% to 3%. In recent trading, the Dow was below its 200-day moving average of 10,250, while the S&P 500, Dow Transports, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 were each more than 10% below recent highs, or in official "correction" territory. Traders watch such technical indicators closely, and concerns about moving averages and the like can become self-fulfilling and generate more selling. At the same time, the selloff...

Stocks fell sharply Thursday after an unexpected spike in jobless claims and as global jitters pushed the dollar higher. -snip- The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down nearly 300 points, or almost 3 percent, and the CBOE volatility index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, spiked more than 20 percent to above 43, its highest level in over a year.

Dow Theorist: Sell Everything Liquid, You Won't Recognize America By The End Of The Year Joe Weisenthal May. 18, 2010, 8:57 AM Image: US Army WHOA! Richard Russell, the famous writer of the Dow Theory Letters, has a chilling line in today's note: Do your friends a favor. Tell them to "batten down the hatches" because there's a HARD RAIN coming. Tell them to get out of debt and sell anything they can sell (and don't need) in order to get liquid. Tell them that Richard Russell says that by the end of this year they won't recognize the country....

Early last week, the stock market cheered a $1 trillion bailout package to contain Europe’s debt crisis. The Dow Jones Industrials went up more than 400 points on Monday. By the end of the week, however, worries returned that European austerity plans would slow economic growth. The euro sank to a four-year low. Just a while ago, the euro was being touted as the world’s primary currency in-waiting. On Friday, the Dow dropped 1.5% to trim the week’s gain to just 240 points. The S&P 500 snapped a two-week decline to close +2.2%. So far in 2010, both the S&P...

NEW YORK – Stocks dropped again Friday after concerns grew that the deep spending cuts under Europe's bailout plan could slow a global recovery. The euro dropped to a 19-month low. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 215 points in afternoon trading following a slide of more than 3 percent in European markets. Investors seeking safety piled into Treasurys, the dollar and gold, which hit another record. Crude oil sank 4 percent, and an indicator of stock market volatility jumped. Currency traders have been moving out of the euro throughout the week because of concerns that cost-cutting measures in countries...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 404.71 points, or 3.9%, to 10785.14, helped by gains in all 30 of its components. The average had its biggest one-day gain in both point and percentage terms since March 23, 2009. The Standard Poor's 500-stock index rose 4.4% to 1159.73, led by its financial and consumer-discretionary sectors, up more than 5% each. All the broad measure's other indexes posted gains as well.

Here is amazing video from CNBC this afternoon of stock guru Jim Cramer on air with Erin Burnett and others as they watched the Dow drop to nearly 1,000 points down and then rebound dramatically to a drop of less than 400 points. When the video begins, it shows Cramer talking about Proctor & Gamble being down to $47.01, off over $15 for the day. Cramer said PG was worth more than that, and urged people to buy it at that price. By the time the video ends, it had rebounded to over $60 a share, and was only off...

While everyone is scratching their heads and trying to figure out how the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) lost nearly 1,000 points before rallying back to lose only 347 points - it appears not to be limited to just one stock. On CNBC's May 6 "Closing Bell," correspondent Matt Nesto explained that investigators for both the stock exchanges and for Citigroup, the firm that some are pointing fingers at for a so-called trader error, have narrowed it down to a futures index called the E-mini S&P 500. "A person familiar with the Citi investigation said one focus of the trading...

The White House briefing room might have been the calmest place in America during the Dow's knee-buckling, nearly 1,000-point plunge this afternoon. The dive, which came amid deepening fears that the European debt crisis will infect the United States, came, ironically enough, minutes after Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin had just exited the briefing after talking about regulatory reform -- but not Greece. The first word of the rout came from NBC's Savannah Guthrie, who, reading from her BlackBerry, informed White House press secretary Robert Gibbs that the market "has dropped 1,000" points.

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Greece's parliament has voted in favour of the hefty cuts and reforms proposed by the government to address the country's financial crisis. With 172 of 300 votes in favour, one report said a second vote would have to be passed for the bill to become law. The vote comes a day after three bank workers died in a petrol bomb attack as demonstrations over the planned austerity measures turned violent. The finance minister said the measures were the only way to avoid bankruptcy. But as the vote was held demonstrators gathered outside parliament to protest against the measures. Wednesday's deaths...

Think Dow 11,000 is a big deal? Think again. The Dow Jones industrial average briefly hit the milestone Friday for the first time in 18 months before closing at 10,997. But Wall Street analysts who study key stock index levels say all the attention paid to 11,000 is more like a big distraction. They worry that investors are ignoring another number at their peril: The surprisingly low volume of trading. As stocks have risen over the past year, the volume reflects the vulnerability of a rally riding on the shoulders of relatively few participants. And that's given pause even to...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks slumped Thursday after a rise in weekly jobless claims sent an alarm ahead of the big monthly employment report. The dollar's surge versus the euro pummeled dollar-traded commodities, while Treasury bond prices spiked, lowering corresponding yields, in a classic flight-to-safety move.

With the bond markets closed, all the attention today was on commodities and equities. Crude oil ended up 0.3% at $79.28 a barrel and gold futures hit a new record of $1119 an ounce today, nearly breaking the $1120 mark before dropping down to $1115. The three major indexes all ended higher. The Dow, which has been up every single day this month, ended at 10,293, up 47 points, the NASDAQ at 2166, up 16 points, and the S&P 500 clocked in at 1098, up 6 points. Energy and utilities took a lot of losses today, with Time Warner Cable...

OTTAWA (Dow Jones)--Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Thursday G20 countries have to coordinate planning stimulus exit strategies."That's important so that one country's banking system isn't advantaged over another country's banking system as we exit from this period of stimulus, which isn't going to happen for a while," Flaherty told reporters. He expects G20 finance ministers and central bank governors to discuss exit strategies at their weekend meeting in St. Andrews, U.K. He cautioned, "Not that it's time to implement exit strategies but that we coordinate our planning in terms of exit strategies." Regarding moral hazard when some banks are...

US workers, their retirement funds already clobbered by a decade-long flat-lining of the major stock market indexes, are facing the growing odds of another Lost Decade -- which would further tarnish their dreams of prosperous retirement. A number of financial pros are predicting just such a nightmare -- that the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 Index, into which many workers have invested their 401(k) cash, will march sideways for as many as another 10 years. "The country will grow at a slower rate over the next 10 years as Americans begin the long process of de-leveraging," said...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. stocks rallied Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average pushing above 10000 for the first time in a year on better-than-expected quarterly reports from Intel and JPMorgan Chase, and as improved retail sales data lifted Caterpillar and a wave of other industrials. Since hitting a 2009 closing low of 6547.05 March 9, the Dow has tacked on 53% in the past seven months. For Wednesday, the index closed up 144.80 points, or 1.47%, at 10015.86, marking its biggest one-day gain since Aug. 31. The measure hadn't traded at 10000 since Oct. 7, 2008, and hadn't closed...

How many times have we heard President Barack Obama or high-ranking members of his administration lament the fact that the president "inherited" a recession? Quite a few, if anyone is keeping track. Now the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has broken through the 10,000-point barrier. But that begs the question given the inevitable credit Obama will get from the media and other supporters for this rally, should former President George W. Bush get some of the credit if Obama is so willing to blame him for the collapse? It's a question Neil Cavuto put to the test on his Oct....