Thursday, April 2, 2009

Frenzied Day; Frenzied Week - And The Employment Report Is Tomorrow!

The biggest positive this market has going for it is that this two-day move caught a lot of folks by surprise. The move was fast and furious and those who were left behind are going to be looking to catch a dip so they aren't left out next time. This spiky action has made for tricky trading and it's likely to stay that way.

A big intraday reversal on Wednesday and then a gap-and-run morning left underinvested bulls and overanxious shorts scrambling. Things were getting downright giddy at midday, which set the stage for a late sell-off. There are probably some worries about the jobs report in the morning, which won't be pretty even it is better than expectations.

There was a lot of talk today about how this action marks a major change in market character. The catalyst for the exuberance was the mark-to-market accounting change and some good vibes from the G-20 meeting.

I'm not so sure that those things really are major fundamental changes but the technical action is certainly better and we can't ignore that. We had huge volume and very strong breadth with technology stocks showing some good relative strength. Nasdaq volume was the highest since November and that is going to perk up some interest and help the charts.

RIMM has a very good report out after the close and is flying on the news. That is boosting the indices quite a bit after-hours. Obviously expectations were quite low and it is going to be interesting to see effect of the higher expectations we are pricing in now when earnings season starts in earnest next week.

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