Who Are Wall Street Rock Stars? 

By MattMcCall on 7/30/2007 5:34 PM

Dead Cat Bounce or New Uptrend

One day at a time. That should be the motto for the bulls. The market kicked off the week with solid gains after suffering their worst percentage drop in 5 years last week. The Dow finished the session up 92 points (0.7%), S&P gained 15 points (1.0%), and the NASDAQ bounced 21 points (0.8%).

The good news is the market found some support after the dramatic sell-off the ushered investors into the weekend. The two concerns involve closing off the intraday highs of the session and a weak internal reading. I do not want to get overly nitpicky, however the market did not close on the highs of the session and that was a little concern for me along with the lighter volume. Secondly the number of new lows on the NYSE and NASDAQ remain over 300, suggesting the weakness in the market is still evident. Read More »

By MattMcCall on 7/29/2007 5:57 PM

The Dow was down about 40 points with an hour left in trading on Friday after rising steadily for the prior three hours and it appeared a bottom was in. That was not the case. By the time the closing bell rang the Dow was off another 200 points as it closed out its worst week in five years. The S&P 500 suffered the same fate with a drop of 1.6% or 23 points on the session. The NASDAQ joined the party, falling 37 points or 1.4%.

ANALYZING FRIDAY

So what caused the late-day selling? I believe the number one catalyst was the fact investors did not want to hold stocks over the weekend and decided to sell into the close. The last few months saw investors buying stocks on Friday afternoon on anticipation of “Merger Monday”. This strategy has done a 180, and today the selling was to hedge against any deals falling apart over the weekend. If I am ... Read More »

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Matt McCall

By MattMcCall on 7/26/2007 9:37 PM

The bulls and bears have been battling back and forth the last few days, but today the bears delivered the knockout punch. The Dow suffered it second worst drop of the year and closed the session down 311 points or 2.3%. The S&P 500 also fell 2.3% with a loss of 35 points. Holding up a little better was the NASDAQ, losing 1.8% or 48 points.

Today the bears hit the trifecta with the credit concerns, housing slowdown, and higher oil prices creating a selling frenzy. They were able to trump great earnings from Apple (symbol: AAPL) and Ford (symbol: F), which could not keep the bears from ravaging Wall Street.

TECHNICALS

Today’s market action was very interesting in that the indices rallied in the last hour to close well off the intraday lows and still finished with one of the worst days in a year. First things first, let’s break down the three major indices before looking at the overall market.

The Dow broke below s ... Read More »

By MattMcCall on 7/25/2007 6:05 PM

The day to day volatility has been a mainstay recently; today the intraday volatility came out of its hole again. The Dow began the day higher by triple-digits and before I was able to finish my morning green tea the index gave up all the gains and was in the red. More volatility in the afternoon ensued and by the time the closing bell rang the Dow was up 68 points or 0.5%.

The S&P 500 finished with a gain of 7 points (0.5%) and the NASDAQ added 8 points or 0.3%. The catalyst for the early rally were robust earnings reports from the likes of Amazon (symbol: AMZN) and Boeing (symbol: BA). The selling was fueled by more subprime worries and a housing report that showed the slowest rate of existing homes in over 4 years.

When the market is on edge there will be high volatility and great battles between the bulls and bears. New highs are hit w ... Read More »

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Matt McCall

By MattMcCall on 7/18/2007 5:12 PM

A cluster of negative news had the market on the defensive before the opening bell rang. Last night we highlighted the negative tech earnings and there was more of the same this morning. Lackluster earnings mixed with the CPI number put the market in the red right out of the gates.

Once the market opened it held its ground, that is until Uncle Ben began his testimony in front of Congress. Bernanke sang the same old tune: moderate growth and slowing inflation that remains a concern. The comments were no big surprise to me, but it was apparent others did not like the tone of Uncle Ben’s voice and the selling pressure began.

At one point the Dow was down over 140 points and it appeared the market was in for a world of hurting. That is until the last 90 minutes of trading when the buyers started to nibble on a few positions. By the end of the day th ... Read More »

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Matt McCall