2:45pm EST and the futures are trying to leave the building.... and taking the stock market with them TYC just lost over .10 MSFT just lost over .14 INTC just dropped over .08 and so forth
TODAYS EXECUTIONS: 10:58:55 QLGC SLD 2000 50.75 09:56:29 DELL BOT 2000 27.39 09:49:44 QLGC BOT 2000 51.17 OPEN POSTIONS: LONG DELL 2000 27.39 -0.15 LONG PALM 10000 3.63 -0.88 CLOSED P&L: ($840.00) OPEN P&L: ($9,040) MTD: $44,870 YTD: $204,202 Stocks Slide on Light Volume Against the backdrop of heightened Middle East tensions and Vice President Cheney's warning about prospects for another domestic terror attack, profit-takers clipped stocks, as Peoplesoft (PSFT) warned that it has not seen a pickup in orders and ImClone Systems (IMCL) stumbled in one of its cancer drug trials. Flight-to-quality buying drove Treasuries higher.
Seanote, just wondering why you are holding HAND when it did so poorly in the past week's rocket ride? almost all the turkeys went for a brief flyby but not HAND. Doesn't that foretell of major weakness? (I'm assuming that you are still holding HAND...if not I apologize- I don't read your journal every day and may have missed it)
Stocks Bounce on Merrill, Home Depot US equities are higher in early trading amid reports of a settlement between the NY Attorney General and Merrill Lynch (MER) and earnings from Home Depot (HD) that exceeded analysts' estimates. US Treasuries are lower amid a lack of economic releases, and world markets are mixed.
less chop and more stops.... Hey, let's give Jessie Jackson his props, and start rhyming... Anyways, the market opened without predictably strong indications in either direction, hence the .25% rule applies, you know the same one the NYC uses to charge 9% Sales Tax, by using 8.25% tax rate; 3 out of 4 times the round up comes to 9% anyways. Hence in the market, without strong sentiment in either direction, then the most likely direction would be continuation of the previous trends, and these have been down and down strongly. By the 11:35hour, after waves of programs selling off the market, the base-lining began without earnest. Trendiness and slovenly sideways movement continues in most equities. HD was crushed along with LOW, after yesterday's storng performance. TYC, AOL, BRCD, BRCM, QCOM and WCOM continued to sucker in traders with little upside potential.
No Pleasing This Market US equities are lower despite news of a Merrill Lynch (MER) settlement and generally upbeat corporate news. US Treasuries are higher in the absence of any economic releases, and European markets are lower. As of 11:50 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 49 points (0.5%), the S&P 500 index is 4 points lower (0.4%), and the Nasdaq Composite is down 26 points (1.5%). 507 million shares have traded on the Big Board, while 748 million shares have changed hands on the Nasdaq. Software and retail shares are pacing the decliners, while oil-related and brokerage issues are leading the advancers.
I still can't get over the fact that the majority of traders/investors remain stubbornly bullish. This is the result of two decades of an overall bull market in which this greedy generation has never really experienced hard or difficult times. The primary market trend is down and we are in a bear market. The market has been down for a 3rd year in a row and Americans continue to be bullish because the market has to come around. The market doesn't have to do anything. The public will eventually turn 100% bearish but we have quite a ways to go before that happens. There is little buying interest at this time and yesterday's volume on the NYSE fell below 1 billion for the first time in recent weeks. Now foreign buying of US stock is decreasing as well. A year ago foreign buying of US stocks was as large as the influx of money into US mutual funds. If this trend continues the US current account will turn more negative which will create increasing pressure on the on the dollar. Foreigners tend to buy and hold US blue chips and now that they are bailing out might be a reason why the US major averages have not acted well even while the small and mid caps have advanced. Two main forces impacting our economy today: The deflationary force of world competition. It's become cut throat domestically and internationally. China's wages are rock-bottom and just about impossible to beat. Second, the force of US inflation, mass produced liquidity to keep US prosperity afloat to finance the US government's growing expenses. The net result could be stag-flation, which is an economy going no where but prices pushing higher. This is an ideal scenario for GOLD and rising commodities. GOLD - 22 mining stocks hit 52 week highs! As this war continues to progress and cost billions of dollars, the value or our so-called dollars, because real dollars are backed by precious metals - HINT - will cause a never ending flood. At some point the world will begin to "choke" on the so-called dollar flood which very could be happening now. Some think this surge in gold prices is about to top out or pull back for a correction which in fact may be the truth. But gold has been ignored and avoided for the last 20 years anyway. IMO I think gold and gold shares have quite a bit of catching up to do. I will ride the primary trend for a while and see what happens. Note that the 20 month moving average of gold hasn't even crossed above the 40 month moving average. Silver is similar to gold in that it has crossed it's 20 month moving average as well and is fairly cheap. Yesterday silver rose to it's highest level since Jan 2001. Some good silver stocks are SIL, BAY and SSRI. The big question remains: Will we test Sep 2001 lows and if so, are we going to break those lows. More than likely we won't know for a few weeks.
Remarkable timing, as 16.30 was the absolute low of the day so far (it's 11:43 EST). Good for you! BTW, on your other point: I still can't get over the fact that the majority of traders/investors remain stubbornly bullish. The put/call ratio has been over 1.0 today, currently hovering above .93. So not everyone's bullish.