As oil prices seesawed through the past week, fresh uncertainty about the outlook for the beleaguered financial sector triggered another wave of volatility in financial markets. Economic data were mixed, whereas earnings were mostly better than feared. After all the action, the S&P 500 Index closed the week virtually unchanged, posting a small gain of 0.2%.

This is an exceptionally difficult market to read. In my opinion, we are still in a primary bear market, but this does not preclude powerful rallies. From a short-term perspective, a decline below the July 28 lows will cause a serious headwind for any recovery rally, whereas a drop below the mid-July lows will significantly increase the risk of another general sell-off. On a multi-year horizon, we are probably in for an extended convalescence period of relatively low returns. In short, not a dartboard market, but also not necessarily bad from a canny stock-picking perspective.

Read all about this in my weekly review, highlighting some thought-provoking news items and quotes from market commentators during the past week.

That's the way it looks from Cape Town.