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The economic expansion has been so lackluster that we have expected companies to have problems growing earnings. While we have seen this Earnings Momentum decelerate somewhat, the momentum continues to look relatively strong.

Gambling fever remains in the heartland. Also, recognizing that times have changed, recognizing that seriousness and sensitivity are on the increase, The Leuthold Group now plans to publish an “abridged” version of this publication. In this “A” version, all non-investment related editorial content and features will be eliminated.

Long treasuries moved higher during the first half of July buoyed by favorable June inflation numbers and generally weak economic signals. However, most bond prices did an about face in the middle of the month.

The one thing that we can count on about the future is that it will not be the same as today. While a diamond may be forever, a Blue Chip stock is not...not even Disney, not even Coca Cola and certainly not IBM.

July has been proclaimed the most boring month by The Boring Institute. From a stock market standpoint, I think June should have been so designated.

The public continues to roll the money into mutual funds and Wall Street continues to roll out the new equity offerings. The supply/demand standoff more or less continued in June.

A performance rundown for The Leuthold Group's equity market sectors (and other measures) ranked by 2nd Quarter performance.

This aspect of our work has not been particularly helpful recently, even though it at times has been quite productive in years past. We can't squeeze blood out of a turnip and in recent years we haven't been able to squeeze a 7%-10% correction out of the low volatility market.

I have been employing market breadth data for 32 years, tracking and interpreting a number of variations of advance/decline calculations. Here are some of my conclusions about advance/decline studies.

Presented herein is an update of the debt monetization studies presented two months ago. Data has now been released for the first quarter of 1993, and there is virtually no change. Nevertheless, judging by client response, this will be of interest to our readers.

Wall Street anticipates relatively dull markets in July and August, especially August. It doesn't always work out that way. Also, Polling the Pros in June, a re-examiniation of the gold rally and an update on gambling stocks.

Yields remained in a narrow trading band in early June, as investors braced themselves for another volley of ominous PPI and CPI announcements. But, upon release of May's surprisingly good inflation numbers, the bond market began a steady march upward for most of the remainder of the month.

When value investing requires so much effort just to locate purchase candidates, you might want to re-evaluate your equity sector asset allocation strategy if you have that option. What do the growth stocks look like?

Client Questions...Gold: Is It A New Bull Market?...Gambling Stock Update...The 50 Largest Non-Financial Multinationals, A Survey By The Economist

Our disciplines don't currently provide much latitude, and the disciplines have usually proven to be better than the instincts. Thus, this publication's attitude remains cautious.

The public continues to roll the money into mutual funds and Wall Street continues to roll out the new equity offerings. The supply/demand standoff more or less continued in May.

May supply/demand, seasonal investing and a study of Beta.

A performance rundown for The Leuthold Group's equity market sectors (and other measures) ranked by 1993 performance to date. It was a wild month for some sectors.

Overall earnings momentum was very good, with the best comparisons once again in the large cap sector. The largest 50 companies produced an average +13.2% year over year median gain, the best performance recorded since our earnings monitoring began in 1991.

Shorter-term treasuries finished May on a weak note, reflecting concerns over possible tightening by the Fed. Long treasuries were nearly unchanged for the month, realizing a slight gain, as the President's deficit reduction plan cleared its first hurdle.