Taking the market’s temperature
Just some random market thoughts and observations as we head into the holiday weekend doldrums...
* The S&P 500 looks to finish the 2nd quarter 2010 down 11%. An absolute slaughterhouse from the end of April on.
* You know the bulls are spent when we couldn't even get the traditional End Of Quarter Markups. Brian Shannon (Alpha Trends) called it "end of quarter window-smashing" yesterday with the indexes down close to 4% apiece.
* I'm hearing chatter about the possibility of a short squeeze but I'm not sure I see one brewing. You would need something on the horizon that adds a little fear for the shorts. You're going to tell me that they're afraid of tomorrow's ADP report? Or the employment numbers due out Friday?
* (Supposedly) positive news from Europe's banking wreck yielded little or no reaction here in the States this morning. But we all know how negative news is reacted to lately. A sentiment indicator if ever there was one: Good News = Blah, Bad News = Death & Dismemberment.
* Apple finishes down more than ten bucks on news of a Verizon iPhone launch in 6 months. So apparently, 10 million plus new iPhone users is an underwhelming possibility. Another sentiment touchstone for sure. Verizon was down, too. Oh boy.
* No one running big money is looking to do anything heroic this week, regardless of stocks having gotten, shall we say, a bit cheaper. Other than BP (because of Exxon rumors) and the Tesla IPO (hyped beyond belief), I saw little appetite for anything this week. The selling has stopped in many stocks as of this writing, but now what?
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Anyway, these are just some random observations as I take the market's temperature. I realize that taken together they are incredibly negative, but that's the mood.
We'll see how she finishes the week.
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