The stock market finally broke its 6 week losing streak -- it made 0.04% last week.  This is sort of like a baseball team breaking a losing streak by scoring the winning run on 4 consecutive walks.  Or a soccer team winning by a ricochet off the other team's defender.  Or a race car driver winning because all the leaders ran out of fuel.

Sure it's a win, but does it really build confidence?

I was actually glad to have such a busy weekend that I didn't have time to follow any of the news around the world.  Last week was really draining.  It was good to get lost in eye appointments, 4 year old soccer games, setting up for our church band's first ever outdoor concert, playing about 30 songs, and just enjoying time with my kids.  I hope all you other dads had as great of a Father's Day weekend as I did.

As I get back to reality and the job that feeds all 6 of my kids, it looks like this week could be even more exhausting than last week:

1. The European finance ministers have delayed approving the next 12 billion euro loan payment to Greece until they see more budget cuts and tax increases.  This will be an ongoing story as the 12 billion euros will not be enough to cover the expected 18 billion shortfall that Greece is supposed to have between now and the end of July.
2. Greece's parliament met over the weekend and could not come to an agreement on further austerity measures.  They have now pushed a confidence  vote in the Prime Minister to Tuesday night, which will precede any votes on further austerity measures.  The whole point of meeting over the weekend was to give the markets time to digest the news -- of course this is Europe we are talking about so we shouldn't be surprised that they didn't work over the weekend.
3. The people of Greece continue to fight any spending cuts -- today it is the public power workers' union.  This is expected to cause blackouts across Greece the next couple of days.  Of course this will do even more economic damage to their economy, causing even greater austerity measures.
4. Goldman Sachs has cut their 2nd Quarter GDP estimate from 3% to 2%.  They were one of the key drivers behind the year end rally as they went from having one of the most pessimistic Wall Street to one of the more optimistic forecasts.  Why does this matter?  3% is not only the Fed's "target" growth rate, it is the growth rate used in most forecasting models for things such as budget deficits along with social security & medicare projections.  It's important to me because despite all of the stimulus our economy has only had greater than a 3% growth rate in 2 of the quarters since the recession ended in June 2009.  This is another example of what a Secular slowdown looks like.
5. This is likely to make for an interesting press conference with Professor Bernanke on Wednesday.  Remember last time he argued that the slowdown in the economy during the 1st quarter was "transitory", but the data since then has showed that it may be more than temporary.
6. Thursday will have what is likely another reminder that the economy is struggling -- initial jobless claim, which have been stuck above 400,000 for too many weeks will be released along with the Chicago Fed Index.  If the Chicago region matches the other regional surveys we saw last week, it will remind everyone that we are closer to a recession than a recovery.
7. Friday brings the final1st Quarter GDP revision.  I guess the only question is whether or not it will be slightly above or slightly below 2%.  It doesn't really matter in the big picture, but it could move the market on a quiet summer Friday. (see #4 above.)

While it's probably going to be another long, exhausting week for me, I hope it allows each of you to have a better week knowing that you have somebody watching the market on behalf of your clients.  This allows you to focus on the fun stuff -- helping clients develop and maintain their financial plans.

Enjoy your week!