U.S. stocks overcame steep losses yesterday but the Dow and S&P 500 still closed lower as investors reassessed the prospects for President Donald Trump’s ambitious economic agenda after a Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare was scrapped last week.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average marked its longest losing streak since August 2011 with eight straight declines.

Kudos to Sears Holdings Corp. for finally admitting what everyone already knew: it's almost dead.  Sears indicated in its newly filed annual report that "substantial doubt exists related to the company's ability to continue as a going concern." Sears' cash position has melted from a high point of $1.7 billion for the 2009 calendar year to a mere $286 million to close out 2016.  The company hasn't generated cash flow from its operations since 2006.

New vehicles in March were sitting on the dealer’s lot for about 70 days, the longest amount of time for any month since July 2009, according to research firms J.D. Power. During previous months, new cars hovered in the lot around 65 days. It takes dealers about a week longer to sell new cars than it did this time last year, said Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst at used and new car sales site Autotrader.com.
 

With Northwest Quadrant Wealth Management I’m Tyler Simones