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In the markets:

U.S. Markets: The major indexes ended the week mixed. The S&P 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average reached intraday highs, while small-cap indexes experienced losses. The improvement seemed restrained, as an equally weighted version of the S&P 500 Index modestly declined.

In the markets:
 

U.S. Markets:

The very big picture (a historical perspective):

The very big picture (a historical perspective):

The long-term valuation of the market is commonly measured by the Cyclically Adjusted Price to Earnings ratio, or “CAPE”, which smooths-out shorter-term earnings swings in order to get a longer-term assessment of market valuation.  A CAPE level of 30 is considered to be the upper end of the normal range, and the level at which further PE-ratio expansion comes t