Monday, Monday

Here's my view for the week.

First, the Middle East. Israel has made it pretty clear that their objective is to clean Hezbollah out of Lebanon. Bush has given Israel a green light, and even Lebanon hinted that they might attack Hezbollah themselves. As soon as everyone gets used to the idea that it will take a while to neutralize Hezbollah, the market will forget about it and worry about something else.

Second, manufacturing production numbers came in very strong this morning (0.8% instead of 0.4% expected). There are many earnings reports this week, and anyone missing their numbers by even a penny will be slammed. (Citigroup was down 2.2%.) The market will be concerned with earnings and what Bernanke says on Wednesday in his mid-year report on the economy. Also, just before he speaks, CPI comes out.

This probably won't be a good week for the market, unless most of the earnings reports come in above expectations.