Traders Take An Extra Day Off; Stocks Dance Around And Close Basically Flat, On Slightly Higher Volume.
April 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stock investors returned from a long three-day Easter weekend to a very inactive market. Even though trading was pretty wild, choppy and volatile today, the market still traded in a very narrow range and basically did not move from Thursday’s close. Read more
HAPPY EASTER!!!, HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY!!!, AND HAPPY PESACH (PASSOVER)!!!; Stocks End Short Week With More Gains On Light Trade
April 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks started the morning off with a gap lower on the back of a currency tightening measures in China. But after the gap lower, stocks steadily climbed higher on very quiet trade for the rest of the day. That reversal off the gap lower was caused by the Labor Department announcing that jobless claims this week fell within forecast. Those jobless claims this week rose by 11,000 to 321,000.
Also helping to lift stocks was a couple of merger and acquisition related announcements. Kirk Kerkorian has made a $4.5 billion bid for DCX and WEBM agreed to be acquired by Software AG. WEBM rose 27% on the announcement. This now puts the 1Q M&A deals up 27% over this time last year. $1.1 trillion worth of M&A deals this year has us on pace to beat last years record. More amazing is private equity deals. Those have risen 47%, year-over-year in 2007 so far.
Combine the positive jobless claims with the M&A deals, and with most traders taking Thursday off to have a very long weekend, and you had a recipe perfect for higher stock prices, despite oil climbing back over $64 on the news that the EIA saying that oil inventories declined for the eight-week in a row.
HAPPY EASTER!!!, HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY!!!, AND HAPPY PESACH (PASSOVER)!!!; Stocks End Short Week With More Gains On Light Trade
April 6, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks started the morning off with a gap lower on the back of a currency tightening measures in China. But after the gap lower, stocks steadily climbed higher on very quiet trade for the rest of the day. That reversal off the gap lower was caused by the Labor Department announcing that jobless claims this week fell within forecast. Those jobless claims this week rose by 11,000 to 321,000. Read more
Stocks Revert Back To Old Ways; A Day Of Back And Forth Meaningless Trading Ends With Stocks Slightly Higher On Lower Volume
April 5, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks went back to their old ways of not doing much intraday but boring us to death, after a few important economic numbers hit the wires. The ISM service index fell to 52.4 in March from 54.3 in February. Expectations were for 54.7, so obviously this was not good news. The prices paid index rose to 63.3 in March from 53.8 in February, indicating inflation is still very real. Also, according to the Census Bureau’s factory orders, orders fell 1% in February after being down 5.7% in January. These numbers, overall, were very weak and not bullish. However, the market managed to put in more gains despite these poor economic numbers. Read more
Stocks Finally Provide The Confirmation To The March 21st Follow-Through; Nasdaq Leads Market Higher, On Higher Volume
April 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Possible good news out of Iran over the release of the 15 hostages, oil prices falling 2% to $64.64 as the result of the possible release, positive foreign market gains in Europe and Asia, and positive news from the housing market was just what the market needed, as stocks gapped higher, held the gains, and rallied into the close to close near their HOD. Read more
Stocks End Slightly Higher, Across The Board, On Low Volume; 3rd Day In-A-Row Stocks Reverse Intraday Selling
April 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It was a busy day of economic data and merger & acquisition news, kicking off a week of what is going to be a economic data-filled short week. Stocks got off to a good start, gapping higher, with M & A news all over the headlines. FDC received a bid from Kohlber Karvis Roberts, GISX agreed to a takeover by XRX, and TRB agreed to be bought by Sam Zell. Read more
Stressed Out And Tired; Stocks End The Week With A Boring Session, Leaving The Indexes Mixed And Flat
April 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Another wild-yet-boring intraday session came to an end, with stocks going nowhere. The lack of action today is a bit of a surprise, considering all the news items we had to digest. First, we got off to a positive start and continued higher early on, on the back of a bunch of macro news. The core personal consumption index rose .3% in Feb (biggest jump since August) and personal income and spending rose .6%, contributing to the fact that core inflation is now at 2.4% which is outside the Fed comfort zone of 1%-2%. This data should make it clear that the Fed will not be cutting interest rates anytime soon.
There were two more headlines of interest: The University of Michigan consumer confidence survey was revised down to 88.4 from 88.8 and the Chicago Purchasing Managers index rose to 61.7 in March from 47.9 in February. Anything over 50 on the CPMI indicates expansion.
Stressed Out And Tired; Stocks End The Week With A Boring Session, Leaving The Indexes Mixed And Flat
April 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Another wild-yet-boring intraday session came to an end, with stocks going nowhere. The lack of action today is a bit of a surprise, considering all the news items we had to digest. First, we got off to a positive start and continued higher early on, on the back of a bunch of macro news. The core personal consumption index rose .3% in Feb (biggest jump since August) and personal income and spending rose .6%, contributing to the fact that core inflation is now at 2.4% which is outside the Fed comfort zone of 1%-2%. This data should make it clear that the Fed will not be cutting interest rates anytime soon. Read more
Stock Indexes Close Lower On Higher Volume, Producing The First Distribution Day Since The Follow-Through On Wednesday; Is This Rally Done Already?
March 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks turned tail Wednesday and for the second day in a row dip-buyers did not show up as stocks moved lower, with an intraday roller-coaster ride mid-day after a speech by Ben to a Congressional panel, closing near the lows of the day. Things got off to a bad start, after the February durable good came out below expectations of a 3.5% gain with an actual 2.5% gain. That might have been bad but the ex-transportation numbers hitting YOY growth lows not seen since 2003 and capital goods coming in 1.2% lower and at lows not seen since 2004 were probably what really gave traders a scare. On top of that, add oil hitting six-month highs of $68 after-hours and settling in at $64.08 after weekly inventories were announced falling by 900k, comments by Ben that inflation is still a worry, and the tensions between Britain and Iran over the naval incident and you have plenty of reasons for stocks to go lower; and lower they went. Read more
The Bad News From The Housing Sector Just Doesn’t Stop; Stocks End Lower But On Lower Volume
March 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It was a day of bad news all around, as rising oil prices, more bad news from the housing market, and a drop in consumer confidence rocked stocks early. After the early morning rock, stocks basically spent the rest of the day boring everyone as all of the action was before the bell.
Before the bell, the Conference Board consumer confidence index fell to 107.2 in March, from a downward revised 111.2 in February. This was the first decline in five month and below estimates, after the index hit a 5 1/2 year high in February. Then we had the bad news from LEN’s Q1 report. The stock said this quarter EPS came in 72% lower and withdrew 2007 earnings estimates. The combination of these two news events, with oil making gains helped send all stock indexes lower. The bad news continued, after-hours, for the homebuilders, but we will get to that later.
At the close, the Nasdaq and SP 600 led to the downside with .7% declines, the SP 500, the DJIA and NYSE lost .6%, and the SP 400 held up the best with only a .5% loss. Leading stocks kept pace with the market, with the IBD 100 falling .7%. Even with the leading stocks keeping pace with the Nassy to the downside, there still was virtually no selling in the stocks that make up this current index.
