On Friday, we had a ratio of 12 to 1 of losers to winners. That's the worst performance since 1997. We also had over 3,000 declining issues. This shows real weakness.

Rising long rates threaten the bellwether housing industry as well as consumer spending. The higher [bond] returns begin to compete with stocks for institutional affection.

The bottom line is really the bottom line [on income statements] in the stock market and earnings just don't look good. The jobs data wasn't terrible but the economy has run into a wall. Basically, there's nothing to churn the market to the upside. And another 800-pound gorilla in the room is Iraq.

I think the market has done quite well in what is supposed to be the worst month of the year, but at some point you're going to run into an overbought condition.

The highest bid always won.

Translated, the Microsoft ruling was a major event, but it was so predictable as to have little immediate impact.