Saturday, December 18, 2010

Market Recap For Friday, 12/17/2010

The action today had a holiday feel to it. It was slow-going for a while, but when it became evident that the bears weren't going to do anything, the buyers moved in and produced some pockets of decent gains. The indices were mixed, volume was mediocre and breadth was nothing special, but the bulls were left to their own devices and managed some good moves in biotechnology, steel, precious metals and oil. Retail and drugs were the laggards, but there wasn't anything very aggressive to the downside.

The bulls have seasonality working for them, and I suspect the bears are feeling rather discouraged after the recent little bout of weakness failed to develop into anything more. There continues to be many good reasons for being cautious, but the price action just isn't confirming the bears' argument. You can have the most compelling arguments in the world for the market to act in a certain way, but, if prices don't agree with you, then you are wrong. Maybe the market will come to agree with your arguments at a later date, but I prefer to wait for the price action to actually shift before acting.

No comments: