There's no way to get around it: The markets had a miserable week last week. With their third straight weeks posting declines, both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are now down overall for the year. What's happening?
One problem continues to be the dropping price of crude oil. Even though gasoline prices have started to turn upward, the price of crude fell by 4 percent on Friday amid warnings that the U.S. still has huge stockpiles of oil built up. That's been hammering energy stocks.
The rising dollar/falling euro also continues to bedevil American companies that sell their goods abroad. Finally, wholesale producer prices have fallen for four straight months, reducing the amount companies can get for their goods and bringing about the specter of deflation. It's an odd situation where all these things that might be good for American consumers have had detrimental effects on stocks.
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