United States Motto: I Think I Can, I Think I Can ...

Economic data continues to stutter, unable to clearly indicate positive or negative momentum. The first quarter was expected to be the strongest of the year, economically speaking, by many market participants, so the temptation to “sell in May” remains strong.
—Jason D. Pride, director if investment strategy, Glenmede

New Lows and a Dud IPO

We're testing all sorts of lows: record low for GT10 auction last week; GT30 yield, same level as Dec 2008; European banks are at same price level as 1987...so 25 years of gains wiped out; euro stocks same level as March 2009, so all the gains gone; U.S. safest and best place to be; China stocks at same level as 2006, since then the Chinese economy has doubled and; to cap it all we had an IPO that should never have happened. We're back in risk territory and markets don't want to extend or commit.
Christian W. Thwaites
President and CEO of Sentinel Asset Management, Inc.

Macro Hedge Funds Still Reducing Beta

The investable hedge fund composite index was down 1.10% month-to-date as of May 16, compared to down 5.23% for the S&P 500. CTA Advisors and Convertible Arbitrage performed the best, up 0.36% and 0.32%, respectively. Long/Short performed the worst, down 2.63%.

—Mary Ann Bartels, head of U.S. Technical Analysis

Will China Fire Up its Economy?

China wants the ability to manage a “stable decline” to “promote medium-to-long-term structural reforms” as well as avoid a hard landing.
—Frank Holmes, CEO and Chief Investment Officer, U.S. Global Investors

Should We Sell in May or Hang in There?

Sentiment tends to work a contrarian magic on the market, we were anticipating a period of consolidation after the stellar six-month, 30% run off the early October 2011 low—and we're getting it.
—Liz Ann Sonders, senior vice president, chief investment strategist, Charles Schwab & Co.

Lacking Extremes, Economic Outlook Improves

We believe investors will be more willing to pay a premium to own companies that are capturing the growth that does exist, and/or are creating growth on their own.
—Manning & Napier

Update on Spring Slide Indicators

About half of the 10 indicators are waving a red flag, while four are yellow for caution, and only one is green. On balance the indicators point to a significant risk of a repeat of the spring slide this year.
—Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist, LPL Financial

From Style Box to Global Unconstrained

PIMCO sees greater potential benefit to global portfolios in strategies that are unconstrained by a benchmark, and with managers who think about absolute return at least as much as they think about relative return.
—Andrew F. Pyne, senior vice president, emerging markets equity product manager

End Notes From a Busy Week

Stock prices fell for the week in reaction to a weak employment report and worries over upcoming weekend elections in Greece and France.
—Eagle Asset Management

New Weekly Jobs Claims Flat

The four week average of new claims filed over the past four weeks fell by 5,250 to 379,000. This four-week moving average is generally considered a more accurate barometer of the labor market because it reduces seasonal volatility in the weekly data.
—ING Investment Management