Last week’s data included news from across the economy. Overall, the signals remained positive, despite some weakening in several areas.

As I have been saying, things are pretty good, economically speaking, as we move into the new year. But there is one significant risk that we need to watch. I’m speaking of the pending deadline (midnight today) when funding for the government runs out. At that time, the U.S. debt ceiling extension ends, the government cannot borrow any more money, and—if Congress (including both Republicans and Democrats) can’t come to some sort of an agreement—the government shuts down.

As the conglomerate General Electric weighs a breakup, what will be the effect on its shares? Yesterday, I shared my thoughts on CNBC's Squawk on the Street, including challenges on the fundamentals side.

This morning, the big news was Apple’s announcement that it will bring back what appears to be essentially all of its cash held abroad to U.S. jurisdiction. The immediate impact will be substantial, with Apple saying it will pay $38 billion in taxes. If the remaining U.S. companies with cash overseas were to do the same thing, more than $300 billion would be raised—which would certainly help with the deficit and be good for governmental finances. This is a real benefit of the tax bill.

With the Dow opening above 26,000 yesterday morning, I was all set to continue down the same path of my Dow 24K and Dow 25K posts. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Although markets are up, the Dow is below the magic number as I write this, which is certainly okay. It would not be a bad thing to take a little longer to hit another milestone, as I noted in those previous posts. But what was really interesting about yesterday was not that the milestone was cracked. Rather, it was that sentiment changed and pulled it down again. Past breaks, on the other hand, have driven the market higher. Is this one different?

Last week was a slow one for data releases, with only consumer prices and retail sales. Overall, the news remained good. The expansion continued, with inflation maintaining a moderate pace and consumers spending freely.

Yesterday, I appeared on CNBC’s Nightly Business Report (my segment starts at 11:09) to discuss the effect of rising interest rates on utility investments. Although there are some short-term concerns for investors, there is certainly no cause for panic. Listen in to learn more.

With interest rates rising recently, I have received a number of questions about what that means for our investments. It’s not as simple a question as you might think. As such, it is worth taking some time to think things through.

Although many are talking about higher rates, I think the real market story is deregulation. I shared my thoughts on this and more earlier today on CNBC's Power Lunch.

I was thinking about demographics the other day, in the context of what they mean for economic growth over the next decade or so. One of the reasons growth has been so slow in recent years is simply because of the age mix of the population. Baby boomers are aging and retiring, so they are spending less. The rising millennial generation, on the other hand, has not yet hit its peak earning and spending years. As such, the drag from the boomers offsets the gain from the millennials. It will continue to do so for the next couple of years, but then that will change. The effect of demographics is one of the few things we really can know ahead of time in economics. We know who has been born—and when. After that, it is just a matter of counting.