Weekend Market Overview

Watch and Listen to our Market Summary at this video link.

The Waiting Game

Good morning. In case all of the up-down, down-up, and then back down (or up) action hasn’t tipped you off already, we’re going to suggest that traders are now engaged in a rousing rendition of the waiting game. But instead of simply biding their time, twiddling their thumbs, or sitting on their hands, our friends with the fast computers have busied themselves with trying to profit in whatever way they can with whatever move they can. As such, the favorite game-within-the-game appears to be the “fade trade.”

(more…)

A (Few Hundred) Billion Here and…

Good morning. Although there seems to be some question as to whether or not Senator Everett Dirksen ever actually spoke the words, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money” (official records show there to be no evidence of Dirksen ever uttering this exact phrase), the idea behind the famous quote seemed to get traders riled up in the early going on Wednesday.
(more…)

One-Way Street?

Good morning. If you classify yourself as a bear these days, you probably found yourself cursing, pounding the table, and throwing things at your screen by the time the lunch bell rang yesterday. After moving straight up for more than a month and a half, logic would seem to dictate that after a day like Tuesday, in which the indices were shellacked on a new worry relating to the credit crisis, the glass-is-half-empty crowd was likely to run with the ball for a while. However, by the time the closing bell rang on Wednesday, it became apparent that Wall Street was once again a one-way street.
(more…)

Support and Resistance

Support and Resistance

NASDAQ: Closed at 2457.39

Resistance:
2518 is interim peak from April 2010
2530 is the April 2010 peak (2535.28 intraday)

(more…)

Economic Calendar

October 19 – Tuesday
Housing Starts, September (08:30): 579K expected, 598K prior
Building Permits, September (08:30): 565K expected, 569K prior

October 20 – Wednesday
MBA Mortgage Applications, 10/15 (07:00): 14.6% prior
Crude Inventories, 10/16 (10:30): -0.416M prior

October 21 – Thursday
Initial Claims, 10/16 (08:30): 455K expected, 462K prior
Continuing Claims, 10/09 (08:30): 4400K expected, 4399K prior
Leading Indicators, September (10:00): 0.3% expected, 0.3% prior
Philadelphia Fed, October (10:00): 1.4 expected, -0.7 prior

Courtesy of IH Alerts trading service

Is It Time?

Good morning. As you are no doubt aware, stocks have been rallying since September 1 on the hope that the Fed’s efforts will not only put an end to the soft patch that cropped up in the economy over the summer but also jumpstart economic growth again. It will suffice to say that this view created a heads-stocks-win, tails-stocks-win-too environment and as such, almost all news has been good news for the past 45 days.

(more…)