stecich, sr. v.p. of athena advisor services joins us, hi dan! > > hi how are you this morning? > > i'm doing very well. so is this a seasonal rise or is it an indicator that traders think a lot more of us are going to be in a better financial position to travel bit more this summer? > > well you know it's a yes on both but the second part i'll explain a bit. as far as the seasonal factor you always see these prices go up on a holiday weekend, you'll see it again when the fourth of july comes around... and as far as an indicator of what the economy is doing, i think it's kind of a tail wagging the dog type of deal. if the economy does better, oil tends to rally a bit and that's what we're seeing right now, it's nothing more than that because we're still very well supplied. i think the prices should be lower but they're not and so we have to deal with what we have. > > moving on the s&p 500 got a big boost from april's new-home sales up 6.4 percent and home sales that is... i get that. several industries benefit from home sales, but the job cuts at hewlett-packard 11,000- 16,000.