WILL DOW BREAK 11,000?

The Dow ended higher today, but failed to break the 11,000 mark. I think it's more a matter of when the Dow breaks 11,000 than if it will. I'm pretty sure we'll see the Dow break the 11,000 mark and wouldn't be surprised to see it happen as soon as tomorrow. I still think we'll see a drop in the market around the middle of the year (June or July) but it's quite possible that may not happen. We'll have to wait and see.

Got a couple more annual reports in the mail today. I already wrote about my opinion on executive compensation being out of hand. If anyone has any doubts about this being the case, they only need to review their annual reports and consider how much space is taken up detailing executive compensation and how little space in detailing company business.

On a brighter note, the rise in the market has been a nice boost to both my investment accounts. I saw some decent increases in share prices in my portfolios. Especially recently added shares of BPT. While I purchased BPT for their dividend payouts, it's nice to see such a dramatic increase in price in such a short time.

Also happy to report that my earned income is on the rise. My most recent check from my new job is getting a lot closer to my old take home pay. A promotion and subsequent raise in pay helped in that regard. We've also seen an increase in business, which means I've been able to work extra hours as well.

While there is a lot of uncertainty going forward, in regards to recent government legislation and looming tax increases, I'm beginning to feel a bit better about future prospects for my retirement. Just got to roll with the punches.

Great Start For the Week!

Wall Street wasted little time in recovering from its worst week in two months as the Dow climbed more than 130 points Monday afternoon amid a flurry of M&A action. The markets were taking their cues from the merger news as Xerox (XRX: 7.2799, -1.7501, -19.38%) inked a $6.4 billion deal to buy Affiliated Computer Services (ACS: 52.41, 5.17, 10.94%), Abbott Labs (ABT: 48.681, 1.341, 2.83%) bought a drug business for $6.6 billion and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ: 61.305, 0.645, 1.06%) acquired a $444 million stake in biotech company Crucell (CRXL: 22.35, -1.35, -5.7%).

The Dow was led higher by DuPont (DD: 32.6383, 0.8683, 2.73%), General Electric (GE: 16.7949, 0.3949, 2.41%) and Cisco (CSCO: 23.7104, 1.0904, 4.82%). All 30 blue-chip stocks were in the green but financial-related stocks like American Express (AXP: 34.04, 0.96, 2.9%) and Bank of America (BAC: 16.9194, 0.2694, 1.62%) saw more modest gains.

The early bullishness on Wall Street comes after the markets closed lower on Friday, marking the first three-day slide for stocks since early September. After a relatively resilient month, the markets have run into resistance in recent days amid disappointing economic reports that have led some to question the bulls' economic optimism. In fact, last week marked Wall Street's steepest pullback since early July as the Dow lost 155 points and the S&P 500 slid 2.24%. Still, the Dow is up 1.78% in September and more than 10% year-to-date. But the markets are well on their way to making up most of those losses as traders cheer the M&A activity, which until recently had all but dried up. The increased M&A activity has some traders thinking, “Well maybe there is indeed some value here and the growth prospects are a little bit better,” said Nick Kalivas, vice president of financial research at MF Global. “I think people have taken the secondary issuance as a sign that stocks have poor valuation. I think these M&A deals neutralizes that argument."

We'll see how things hold up for the rest of the week.