I added a very few points today -- 14, to be exact. That's a modest gain, but I can live with it. And there were some nice things to cheer about. The Federal Reserve, for example, released its minutes from a December meeting, and there's not much sign that the central bankers are interested in slowing down their money-printing quantitative easing regime. Theoretically, that's good for stock prices, so I'm welcoming that news.

I was also excited to see some of my buddies on Wall Street -- Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase in particular -- may be gearing up to settle those pesky foreclosure-related suits with the 50 attorneys general. Plus, no criminal charges for bankers! Is this justice system totally functional or what?

I've been really interested in friending this Mark Zuckerberg character, loved his movie and can't get enough of his website. At first I thought this deal between Facebook and Goldman was going to help the company go public. But now I'm a little suspicious that this is some kind of "semi-private" IPO, and I won't get my hands on any Facebook stock for quite a while. I'm definitely friends with Goldman, but I guess you could say "it's complicated". 

See you tomorrow,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average

Some people have a tough time getting back in the swing of things after a weekend of New Year's festivities -- especially on Wall Street, where folks take their hedonism seriously. Not so for me, though; my first outing of 2011 has been a successful one. I'm ringing in the new year with a 118-point jump to the upside! Only 364 days to go, let's keep this momentum going.

First of all, I have to give kudos to my best stock of the day, Bank of America, which ripped 6.4 percent higher in one day. That's a wild surge for a blue-chip company. The company said today that it had resolved a substantial portion of the mortgage putback claims lodged against it by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for around $2 billion. Less material, but still fun to talk about: the bank is girding for a potential attack by Julian Assange and the Wikileaks brigade. Hold strong, BofA! We can get through this!

As for economic data, November construction spending improved some, and manufacturing activity increased in December (although not necessarily the kind of activity that helps create jobs). Any news that isn't horrible is okay news to me.

Excited to see what happens tomorrow,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average

Hard to explain today's slim loss. Weekly jobless claims dipped below 400,000 today to hit a two-year low. Could the economy be turning around? A measure of Chicago manufacturing activity rose to levels it hasn't seen since 1988, and according to the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales are on the rise.

I think the reason I'm not really buoyant on the good news is that most people just aren't that interested in trading stocks today, what with New Year's right around the corner. I can't blame them. I booked a nearly 11 percent gain this year, which is especially crazy when you consider that the economy has looked pretty stagnant for much of it. If I were a trader, I'd be hoping to close this year out quietly and start fresh come 2011.

In that spirit, I'm signing off. Happy New Year!

The Dow Jones Industrial Average

It just keeps on getting better for me. For the second day in a row, I'm hitting a two-year high! Christmas is coming early to the financial exchanges. And it's not without good reason. Third-quarter GDP numbers were revised upward today, and November existing home sales rose for the first time in months. There was general joy in the financial-services sector, as my bank stocks JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America both ended the day higher.

I climbed 26 points today and am up about 5 percent this month! I am headed into the new year with some serious swagger. That said, trading volume has been light lately, partly on account of the holdays. And so who knows whether these heady days can last? For now, I'm just enjoying the good cheer.

I won't be keeping my diary tomorrow, because I'm just feeling too good. Why do all this self-examination when things are rolling along so smoothly?

See you soon,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average

Hey look at me! I'm at a two-year high. This level has a lot of emotional significance for me, because it is the result of a long, hard slog following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. And now it looks like I can put some of those credit crisis woes behind me. I'm also feeling some relief from impending closure. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today sued Ernst & Young, Lehman's auditors, for allegedly enabling accounting fraud.

But there's other stuff besides my apparent recovery from the Lehman trauma. Merger activity seems to be picking up! Cases in point: Massey, the energy company, might be looking for some buyers, and TD Bank looks ready to buy Chrysler Financial.

So that's a plus. For the most part, though, I'm just hoping to cruise on through the rest of the short week and catch my breath until the New Year.

See you tomorrow,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average

I'm not talking about Christmas card etiquette, either. As complicated as that is, what worries me more is what's going to happen to the credit card companies.

The regulators are once again on my tail, seemingly hell-bent on undermining American enterprise. Some holiday gift, right? I scoffed last Thursday about potential problems for Visa and MasterCard after the Federal Reserve said it may cap transaction fees for debit cards. Those aren't my stocks, I said, and I chortled that American Express isn't in the debit card business. Well, that gloating caught up to me today, as AmEx dropped 3.4 percent, contributing to my modest 14-point decline.

Elsewhere, Meredith Whitney, a gloomy but very smart analyst, went on 60 Minutes to talk about an impending crisis facing American state budgets. She's been going on about this for a while now, but it's hardly heartening that she's gotten some TV face time on such an enormous platform. Something may truly be afoot there.

While we're on "state" liquidity troubles, Europe's still got some major headaches to deal with. Apparently even France is vulnerable to a credit downgrade. France! Like, the one with the Eiffel Tower? For some reason it seems like they'd be able to sort things out or bank on their sheer cultural superiority. Apparently speaking a beautiful language isn't enough to protect you anymore.

All these looming crises aside, it's kind of quiet out there. Seems like we're slowing down ahead of the holidays, which is fine with me. I'm hoping to catch my breath on Christmas Eve, when I get the day off.

See you tomorrow,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average

I had a flat day. My performance was as flat as a tire that just ran over a nail. It was as flat as the world before Pythagoras and Eratosthenes. It was flat like a bottle of soda that sat open in the sun too long. It was flat like a bad karaoke singer. I'm talking pancake flat. Crepe flat. More flat  than a British apartment.

Obama signed an extension of the Bush tax cuts. The SEC is looking into banks' mortgage practices again. A lot of other stuff is going on too. But I was flat today. I lost seven points -- a loss so small you'd hardly notice it.

I was flat like a table.

See you Monday!

The Dow Jones Industrial Average

Good news! Maybe you didn't know this, but FedEx is really important -- not just to people who want to send baubles and trinkets across the globe, but also to me and much of corporate America. The reason is not too hard to grasp; when there's a lot of economic activity, people tend to ship stuff around. And so it was with some joy that I greeted today's announcement that FedEx was expecting great full-year results on the back of record shipments. Happy holidays indeed!

From a data standpoint, the overall economic picture wasn't getting much worse, either. Weekly jobless claims held steady at 420,000 -- not a good level at all, but at least it didn't get worse. And yeah, the housing market is definitely still in bad straits, but housing starts rose in November. Small consolation, since the number of building permits declined, but what can you do. It'd be crazy to expect every little data point to be rosy, given how much of an economic slump we're in.

It was a little sad to see American Express, one of my stocks, get dinged up today. I wonder if it had anything to do with the Federal Reserve's proposal to cap the amount companies can charge retailers for debit card transactions. That would be odd, because American Express doesn't do debit cards. Oh well, they make plastic things people swipe, so maybe people got nervous and sold for the wrong reasons.

All in all a decent day. I added 42 points. Tomorrow's Friday.

Good night,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average

Today was a bit of a zig-zaggy day (up in the morning, down in the afternoon, close to break-even at the close). Maybe today's big dump of economic data has something to do with it. Mortgage applications were down last week; the housing market remains a mess, duh. The consumer price index came in lower than expected; the economy isn't growing fast.

On the other hand, manufacturing in my home state of New York grew dramatically. Industrial production and capacity utilization also came in better than expected. So not everything is tanking. Plus, the Senate voted in favor of a tax-cut extension, which will put more money in people's pockets and hopefully more money in stocks.

It's not just the domestic economy I have to worry about these days, though. The creditworthiness of Spain and Belgium is under review. As the year winds down, we're still just cruising from one crisis to the next. Ah, well, at least I didn't take it on the chin today.

See you tomorrow,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average

Thank heavens for the Federal Reserve! "Seriously, Fed, never change," is what I was thinking this morning before the central bank announced its latest monetary policy decision. And it must have heard me, because everything is the same as before! The Fed plans to keep creating money out of nowhere to buy long-term Treasury securities in an effort to keep down long-term interest rates. And it plans to keep short-term interest rates near zero, assuring easy money for big financial institutions! Hopefully that will help with unemployment or something, but mainly I'm thinking it'll allow some people to buy more stocks, which is what I'm all about.

Following that news, I hit my best intraday levels since September 2008, which you may remember as "the brief period of time right before everything went completely to bits." That rally couldn't last, and I ended the day up 48 points -- to log my highest close since September 2008. Not bad, right?

It's not all gravy on the quantitative easing front. For some reason, yields on bonds have been rising lately. That's not what we expected, since the Fed's actions are supposed to lower interest rates. The meaning of this is not yet certain, but I'm on my toes about it.

We'll see what happens!

The Dow Jones Industrial Average