Thursday, April 17, 2008

today's market

the indices held up pretty well today, although breadth was negative and many of the momentum favorites pulled back. the strength was mainly driven by financials and by mer in particular. solar energy, fertilizers and some of the more extended stocks saw some profit-taking kick in, but bottom-fishing in financials helped to shore up the action.

goog earnings after the close are very good, and the stock is trading up sharply and taking many other technology stocks with it. this is very similar to what happened on ibm's earnings last night, but for some reason that emotion failed to hold up overnight. it may be different with goog because it has been a momentum favorite in the past and may fan the speculative flames with a big gain.

the those that believe, the indices look in pretty good shape technically. i was surprised that the ibm news didn't help deliver better momentum today, but we certainly held up well overall, so it's tough to find fault with the action. possibly the 'news' out of mer dampened things a bit. with the goog report sucking in buyers, we are likely to see some anxiety over adding some long exposure - although c's report tomorrow morning could change that.

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