The big things you need to know:

1. First, reporting season stats have come in “slightly squishy” in our view, suggesting to us that the choppy price action in the S&P 500 of late has been about more than geopolitical concerns.
2. Second, what we read in earnings call transcripts this past week continues to suggest that the macro backdrop is mixed, though we are not seeing any indications of major problems.
3. Third, the thing that jumped out the most to us in our other updates was the slight downtick in optimism on the stock market outlook in the latest Conference Board consumer confidence survey.