The Yanks came back from their public holiday in a negative mood yesterday with the Dow Jones down over 200 points. It wasn’t a great start to the week, but here’s the funny part, it was all on the back of some great economic news.

Try these for size!

• The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5% in March from 12 months earlier.
• US consumer confidence rose from 94.3 to 95.4 in May
• The US Philadelphia Fed service sector index rose from 41.0 to 54.5 in May.
• US new home sales increased by 6.8% in April.

So why are the markets down then – well it’s because people are nervous about a rate hike this year. Once that’s out of the way, we might see a return to some normality, although it’s important to remember that it’s been three and a half years since the US stock market saw a correction (or a 10% drop in the market) and one is, on an historical basis, way overdue.

But as long as economies keep improving, so will markets, and dips and drops can be buying opportunities. If you want some ideas for stocks, subscribe now and you’ll be a weekly receiver of our survey of Super Stock Selectors, where we ask experts to tell us a stock they like, and one they don’t.

Founder and Publisher of the Switzer Super Report