Fresh from filing my tax return, I am greeted by an article today telling me 45% of Americans pay zero taxes. Is that their fair share?

Markets appear to be slowing as they enter the neighborhood of all-time highs. SPX continued to rise today, tacking on $6 to close at $2101. RUT only gained a dollar, closing at $1140. NASDAQ lost $20 to close at $4940. Trading volumes picked up with 2.3 billion shares of the S&P 500 companies trading today. Trading volume rose 6% on the NYSE and also rose 9% on NASDAQ. Trading volumes on SPX and the NASDAQ Composite remain below the 50 dma.

Housing starts came in at an annualized rate of 1089k for March, almost flat with February's 1194k. Building permits were right in line with 1086k, up from February's 1177k.

Passover begins Friday evening and the markets have historically softened just before Passover, according to the Stock Traders Almanac. Perhaps a large number of traders close positions to take their profits before taking off for the holiday.

So far, the markets have chosen to ignore most of the bad news coming out of the earnings announcements, but that may not last long. We also have a FOMC meeting coming next week. That may start to give traders pause.