Free Republic

Market breadth, a measure of how many stocks are rising versus the number that are dropping, has turned “exceedingly negative,” according to Brad Lamensdorf, a portfolio manager at Ranger Alternative Management. Lamensdorf writes the Lamensdorf Market Timing Report newsletter and runs the AdvisorShares Ranger Equity Bear ETF HDGE, -0.64% an exchange-traded fund that “shorts” stocks, or bets that they will fall. “As the indexes continue to produce a series of higher highs, subsurface conditions are painting an entirely different picture,” Lamensdorf wrote in the latest edition of the newsletter. He noted that the year-to-date advance in equities — the S&P...

Here’s an analogy that President “Bracket” Obama can understand: Imposing a no-fly zone at this stage is a little like keeping LeBron James and Dwayne Wade on the bench almost the entire game and then, down 20 points and with a minute left, putting them on the floor. They might change the score — but not the final outcome.

Standard & Poor’s late Thursday said Netflix, data-storage provider F5 Networks Inc. (NFX) and oil and gas company Newfield Exploration Co. will replace the New York Times Co. (NYT) , Office Depot Inc. and Eastman Kodak Co. in the S&P 500 Index (SPX) .