4pm wrap up.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Daily Diary today.

Lots of lively chatter despite the second day of what has been a dull market so far this week. Market indices end pretty much flat. Technology recoups about half its just over one percent loss on Monday.

Finish Line (FINL)  was up nearly five percent on the day despite so-so numbers the other day. Perhaps anticipating good results when Nike (NKE) reports after the bell tonight.

Looks like the stake is finally driven through the heart of the effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Both sides will blame each other as premiums continue to increase at an unsustainable pace into the mid-terms in 2018. On to tax reform now, with hopefully better results.

2:15 p.m. update:

Market fairly quiet as Chairperson Yellen makes her awaited comments.

Gold slips a bit to just over the $1,300 an ounce level.

Overall, major market indices holding to slight gains.

Uniti Group (UNIT)  resumes its month long slow slide as Citigroup cuts it to neutral on former parent Windstream's problems. FBN Securities reiterates Outperform rating on Facebook FB  stating recent worries are 'overblown'.

Morgan Stanley very bullish on production ramp up at Tesla (TSLA) . Sees 300,000 Teslas on the road by yearend and 531,000 by end of 2018. Also sees 3 million Teslas on the road by 2023. Definitely the optimistic viewpoint on the street.

Markets have given up most of their early gains but major indices are all hanging on to slight gains at the noon hour.

Shake Shack (SHAK)  taking a 5% hit as Wedbush downgrades the name due mounting concerns over the impact of cannibalization of same-store sales growth. I remain deeply underweight the entire restaurant sector which is seeing poor spending growth, and is affected by growth of food delivery services. The push to a $15 an hour minimum wage certainly won't help the industry either.

Apparel retailers, another sector I am heavily underweight, are getting a boost from better than expected numbers from Ascena Retail Group ASNA .

BHP Billiton (BHP) making some news today by stating China's Road & Belt initiatives could require some 150 million tons of steel to build over the next decade.

The market is reclaiming a good portion of yesterday's losses in the early going. Oil is going in the opposite direction and is giving back some of yesterday's rally that saw Brent crude hit a five-month high.

Not surprisingly, the huge data breach at Equifax (EFX)  has claimed the head of the CEO, who announced he is retiring, effective today, after 12 years of transforming the firm from a sleepy credit data provider to a data analytics powerhouse.

Uber continues to be challenged outside the United States. After London started the procedure to revoke the company's license to operate in the city recently, now Quebec has initiated new province regulations that will impede Uber's ability to offer its services there. It always amazes me how powerful the taxi unions and their political patrons are in other countries. Even NYC has rejected its mayor's attempt to restrict Uber in that city. Nice to see consumers win, at least in the States.

As I have been saying for some time, hopes for Axonvant's (AXON) late-stage drug candidate targeting Alzheimer's were likely to end in failure. Today, the company announced that its key Phase 3 trial for its drug candidate Intepirdine failed to meet its primary endpoint. The shares are being crushed in pre-market trading as a result. I really would have liked to have been wrong on this one for society's sake. It truly is a horrid disease that remains the black hole of drug development efforts to date.

General Electric (GE)  looks like it may take a hit on one of its largest industrial contracts. A political shakeup in India looks like it will result in the loss of a $2.5 billion agreement to build locomotives in the country as India will seek instead to transform its huge rail network to the use of electric locomotives exclusively. Glad to know politicians are as feckless outside the United States as in this country. GE had already invested $200 million in building a local plant to build locomotives in the country.

I'm Bret Jensen, and it's good to be here this Tuesday standing in for Doug Kass for the second day this week on the Daily Diary.

China is in the news today. Chinese regulators have imposed maximum fines on tech giants Baidu (BIDU) , Tencent and Sina Weibo for failing to adequately deal with online content that includes pornography and violent material. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have blocked WhatsApp in the country this week as the government is stepping up security ahead of a Communist Party meeting in October. Over here, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is looking for meaningful actions from China around trade issues, including forced technology transfers and data localization requirements. Tensions between North Korea and the United States continue to be a concern for the market.

Hurricane Maria caused up to $85 billion in insured losses according to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide. The low end of AIR's estimate is $40 billion. About 85% of that loss is for Puerto Rico. This dwarfs the firm's estimate for losses from Hurricane Harvey and is above the estimate of $32 billion to $50 billion in losses for Hurricane Irma. I expect Puerto Rico to continue to be a major story -- first, because of the extensive damage on an island that already was facing bankruptcy, and second, because it will be months before power will be fully restored to the island given its poorly run electricity grid and infrastructure. Also, the Puerto Rican community is a large one in the pivotal swing state of Florida.

So, what is on everyone's mind before the market open this Tuesday?