Recap

Strong close to what looked to be a weak day after early morning strength. The Russell 2000, Transports, Utilities and Semis very especially strong. Real estate and construction led the way while Oil was the weakest sector.

Speculation on a Commerce Bancorp buyout. Smaller regional banks look to be good buys as consolidation in the industry is expected.

China increases in efforts to cool stock market.The problem is these measures do not have any effect during the midst of a mania but later come back to haunt the market once the indices top out.

Consumer confidence made a strong rebound in May. Very unexpected when one considers the high gas prices. Perhaps things may not be so rosy in June if high prices at the pump persist.

I am in NYC engaging in some research on the alternative energy industry. I picked the minds of some industry insiders and have learnt some very useful stuff.There really is no substitute to gaining information from well placed sources within companies - no I don't mean illegal information such as earning numbers and knowledge about deals before they happen. Its good to know how a company operates, what kind of people are managing it, what their motivations are, who the customers are, who the suppliers how, what their competition is like, what gives them an edge etc etc. Good stuff. I plan on writing about it some time in the near future.