Salient to Investors:

Rick Fier at Conifer Securities said Bernanke’s message that tapering is coming, the economy is improving, and rates will be low for a time is taking hold in the market, and with better than expected initial jobless claims and OK earnings its hard not to be bullish.

The S&P 500’s estimated 2013 p/e ratio is at 15.3, the highest since April 2010. 75 % of S&P 500 members so far reporting have beaten earnings estimates. 81 percent of S&P 500 stocks are above their 50 moving average versus 93 percent at the 19-month high of 93 percent in May and the 2013 bottom of 27.8 percent in June.

Jonathan Aldrich-Blake at Ashburton said Bernanke is really guiding the market so that there are no real shocks when Fed actions do take place, and the ‘bad news is good news’ seen earlier this year is starting to die down as people have more belief in the recovery.

Richard Sichel at Philadelphia Trust said jobless claims were better than expected and with earnings rolling full steam it becomes a stock-by-stock market.

Read the full article at  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-18/u-s-stock-index-futures-little-changed-before-earnings.html

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