These businesses will go from being great to being pretty good and expectations are being dashed. This is a very tough time for people in the investment business to make returns.

We're having a pretty good time economically, and what that's saying is the consumer is alive and kicking. Retail is a huge factor in our economy.

Clearly, the signal event of the day was the explosion in Saudi Arabia, which provided some excitement in energy. But we're clearly in a place where people don't want to own the wrong stuff over the weekend. Everybody's sort of meandering along.

A couple things this morning are being driven exclusively by the option expiration tomorrow. It's just a fact of life that you get some abnormal activity in the week before, and certainly the week of, the option expiration.

Texas Instruments is hitting a new high and that's always encouraging. There are these points of light that are stimulating interest in technology, and it's a developing trend that's positive.

When the market is uncertain, it either drifts or goes down. Looking at the economic figures that we're seeing, it tells you that inflation is coming. I suspect the Federal Reserve will keep beating on it gradually.