Alcoa Corporation (AA) has been among the strongest performers in the recent roller coaster ride of the stock market. Shares have reversed course posting some of the larger gains among Dow components.

The federal unemployment report last Friday was wretched, as you know, but there was more to be gleaned from it after a few days reflection than we could observe right away. Jon Markman takes an in-depth look at the numbers.

With more than 31,000 restaurants in 100 countries, the iconic purveyor of Big Macs and Happy Meals generated more than $22 billion in revenue last year to blow away its competition.

Bears are dominating this fall, but in keeping with my theme this week I have more good news to throw on the positive pile.

We've all heard a ton of bad news lately from the U.S. economy and overseas unrest. But there is plenty of good news to consider as well.

Why would anyone be the slightest bit bullish in this yucky environment? With a nod to a famous luxury liner named after Queen Elizabeth, it's a little something you might call QE 2. The letters stand for "quantitative easing," the strategy now being deployed by the Federal Reserve to attack the credit crisis after everything other tactic has failed.

Stocks swirled early this week within a pleasantly narrow range for once. It was exactly what you would expect on following expiration week and before a holiday -- a lot of drift and light volume. 

Stocks have suffered through an epic November even after the recent surge, and the index roll call this year still has the capacity to shock: The Dow is down 39%, the S&P 500 is down 45%, the Nasdaq is down 48% and the Russell 2000 is down 47%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly unemployment report came out last week, and as you probably know it wasn't real pretty. How much worse will things get, and how long will it take to get there?

The U.S. economy clearly worsened over the past two weeks, and shows no sign of slowing its downside momentum. Among the data points were terrible retail sales report and outlook from Best Buy (BBY), the bankruptcy of rival Circuit City (CC) and lousy same-store sales reports from JC Penney (JCP), Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and Pacific Sunwear (PSUN).

Investors find themselves at a familiar crossroad now, though the sky is darkening so it's harder to see the path forward. From a technical point of view, U.S. stocks are clearly near the bottom of their recent range.

Some terrific elements lined up in trading today that actually make me hopeful that U.S. stocks put in a meaningful intermediate-term bottom at last.

When the election euphoria ends, the markets and investors have to face reality about the economy.

So how about that bond market, huh? Surely those smart guys are getting with the idea that expectations for the economy have bottomed and everything's going to be OK pretty soon, right? Umm, sorry. Not so much.

So why can't the market get going in a meaningful way despite seemingly low valuations? The simple answer is that prospects for the economy are weak and getting weaker.

The past 30 days were really a truly amazing stretch of time in market history. Take a deep breath and congratulate yourself for living through it, particularly if you have been following our advice here to keep 75% of your investable funds in cash and did not see a fifth of your net worth eroded.

Panic is driving the action on the exchanges, but there are ways to avoid the mayhem.