1st Posting Tuesday, 05/29/2012 08:30 AM

Back home, back on schedule. Time to get serious and finish out the month.

Asian markets closed in the green across the board, supposedly on hopes of a policy response, ie. stimulus, by the Chinese authorities. In Europe, Britain, France, and Germany are trading modestly in the green, while Italy is modestly in the red, and Spain is significantly in the red, down over 2%. The problem is renewed concerns over the Spanish banking sector, as a major bank has requested government aid, and a recent data release showed retail sales in Spain fell nearly 10% in April. U.S. futures are positive at the moment. Economic data on tap for release today is the Case Shiller 20 City Home Price Index, and an initial read on May Consumer Confidence. Of course, the Big Kahuna of economic releases, the monthly Unemployment Report, will be coming on Friday. The report will be scrutinized even more carefully than usual, if that is even possible, as the election season gets into high gear.

A couple of MarketWatch articles caught my eye this morning.