The market has been bobbling along, waiting for the Fed to raise rates. A 0.5% increase wouldn't surprise anyone at this point. Last week's strong employment and hourly earnings reports, coupled with slower-than-expected productivity growth, pretty much destroyed hope for a quarter-point increase. On the other hand, the National Association of Purchasing Managers' survey showed drops in prices paid.

The benchmark Treasury bond, aka "the bond", is now the 10-year Treasury instead of the 30-. The supply of long bonds has been shrinking due to government buybacks, so the 10 will now be the standard. 10's usually yield just a bit less than 30's, and have long been a benchmark for mortgage rates.

The techs annd biotechs started looking good again last week. We'll see if it lasts beyond this week's earnings reports by heavyweights Dell, Applied materials, and Cisco. 89% of the S&P 500 have have reported first quarter earnings, up an overall 23%, and broad-based. Cyclicals led the pack, particularly energy and basic materials, and tech earnings so far are up 31%.