The papers are full of distractions and absurdities.  You can find almost any point-of-view you want.  Some argue that central banks are winning, that the stock market hasn't gone down because it is getting ready to go up, and soon, the housing market will bottom out too.

The headline reading of the Commerce Department's durable goods orders report contracted for the third consecutive month during March, due largely to declines in demand for transportation and defense goods.

The S&Ps and Dow are still within grasp of a retest of the Friday highs; however, it would not take much of a momentum shift for the correction off those highs to accelerate as they did several weeks ago.

Toni Hansen writes that the market's bias remains bullish into Wednesday morning with Friday's highs as the larger time frame resistance.

If the credit markets remain tight and economic growth in the US has slowed dramatically, why wouldn’t the Federal Reserve continue slashing rates at their next meeting on April 30? One word: inflation.

There are millions of causalities in the war between inflation and deflation, but no clear winner.

It has been a record breaking day in the financial markets with the US dollar falling to a new all-time low and oil prices hitting a record high above $119 a barrel.

Earnings are a major influence at present when it comes to where the markets are opening each morning, so Tony Hansen would suggest not relying as heavily upon postmarket analysis in the evenings.

Have gold prices (GLD) stopped responding to the weakness in the dolllar?

James Mound reviews futures and commodities in his weekly report for the week of April 21.