Stocks closed mostly lower yesterday, but only moderately so. Although, the small-cap Russell 2000 eked out a small gain of 0.05%.

The S&P's latest streak ended at 6 up days in a row.

That came on the heels of the S&P's previous streak (9 up days in a row), which ended just a couple of weeks ago. That one was the longest winning streak in 20 years.

Between the start of the 9-day streak and yesterday?s close, the S&P's been up in 17 out of 21 days.

Wow!

Not much in the way of economic reports out yesterday.

Another retailer, Home Depot, reported earnings yesterday before the open, and posted a negative EPS surprise of -0.84%, and a positive sales surprise of 1.15%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of -1.93% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 9.4%. Unlike Walmart, they said they did not plan on any broad based price increases due to tariffs. But admitted they might raise prices on some individual Home Depot items, while some other items just might no longer be available. But they plan, by and large, to keep prices steady. (You'll recall Walmart last week said they planned to increase prices on some items due to tariffs. It will be interesting to see how other retailers deal with this issue.)

Today we'll hear from another 125 companies on deck to report, including retailers Target, Lowe's, The TJX Companies, Canada Goose, and Baidu, to name a handful.

In other news, China cut their benchmark lending rates on the 1-year and 5-year loan prime rates to 3.0% (from 3.1%), and 3.5% (from 3.6%), respectively. This was their first rate cut in 7 months.

Japan reported that export growth slowed last month (the second month in a row), as tariffs affected orders. But they still saw a 2% export growth rate. Although, imports declined by -2.2%. Better than the expected -4.5%. But down nonetheless.

Today, on the economic report front, we'll get MBA Mortgage Applications and the Atlanta Fed Business Inflation Expectations.

Note, while this week is a normal week, we will be entering into a 3-day holiday weekend as the markets will be closed on Monday, 5/26 for Memorial Day.

There could be some extra volatility going into the holiday weekend.

But so far, the markets have been steadily melting up on the prospect of new trade deal announcements to come. Not to mention, another better-than-expected earnings season.

See you tomorrow,