Markets Down At Opening

Wall Street opened slightly down this morning, possibly owing to two factors: increasing worries that this recovery, such as it is, is running out of steam and the seasonal summer doldrums.

In the first 30 minutes of trading, the Dow is down 46 points or about half of 1 percent.

The broader S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq are both down a little less than half of 1 percent.

With last week's stunning joblessness report still ringing in the ears of traders and increasing murmurs about the need for a second government stimulus, Wall Street is moving sideways.

"The outlook for the domestic economy remains shrouded in uncertainty despite the evidence of a bottoming in the housing market and what looks to be a sharp slowing in the rate of decline in automobile sales," Mizuho Securities USA writes this morning. "The ‘Green Shoots’ emerging in the housing industry reflect the fundamentals of consumer demand for foreclosed homes, declining home prices and lower mortgage rates; while, the leveling off in auto sales reflects the fire sale liquidation of inventories at dealers who have lost their franchise licenses."

Which is what The Ticker has been saying all along.

-- Frank Ahrens
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