Free Republic

The U.S. economy may be zipping along, but the animal spirits in the stock market are looking decidedly bedraggled. Yesterday the Dow was on a roller coaster, falling more than 160 points before recovering for a small gain. The index lost 123 points last Friday and 127 points on Monday, closing below 10,000 for the first time this year. This comes despite rising corporate earnings and productivity, plus another positive jobs report showing that companies hired 288,000 additional workers last month. Given that the market usually anticipates what the real economy will be doing some months out, this has a...