Why Today's Dow Didn't Continue Friday's Rally

Following Friday's 1.2% gain, the Dow (as well as the other major indexes) was slightly down on Monday:

Index	Change	Ending Value
Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI  )	-17.10 [-0.13%]	12,845.13
Nasdaq (INDEX: ^IXIC  )	-3.67 [-0.13%]	2,901.99
S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC  )	-0.57 [-0.04%]	1,344.33

There was no big news today like there was with Friday's stock-boosting jobs report, in which the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped from 8.5% to 8.3%.

Instead, most news reports kept up the ongoing saga of the past few months: the European sovereign debt situation. The European Union, Greece, and Greece's private creditors continue to dicker over the exact terms of Greece's potential bailout and the haircut given to Greek debt.

There were no meaningful macro events today and there were no huge individual Dow component movements, hence a pretty flat Dow. The largest gain was a 1.7% gain by Bank of America (NYSE: BAC  ) , continuing its 2012 recovery (it's up more than 40% year to date off some admittedly low lows). However, the other three financial components of the Dow were down, including the largest tumbler – Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) , down 1.3%.

Instead, we await quarterly earnings reports from Coca-Cola (before market open) and Disney (after market close) tomorrow. Analysts expect Coke to report $0.77 per share versus $0.72 last year's quarter. Meanwhile, Disney is expected to post $0.71 versus$0.68. Keep in mind analyst estimates usually exclude one-time items.

As we look forward to Coke and Disney's quarterly numbers, remember to look to look past daily news, quarterly reports, and even yearly results and toward the long term. For some long-term ideas, check out our free report: "Secure Your Future With 11 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks."