Thursday, May 19, 2011

The Bears Aren't Playing Well

Once again the bears demonstrated their ineptitude. We had a gap-up open on top of a weak oversold bounce and some poor economic news, but the pessimists just couldn't press when they had the opportunity. Weakness in the dollar was really all that mattered. There is a Pavlovian stock-buying response to any downtick in the dollar, and that held us aloft today.

Volume continues to be light and breadth was just about flat on the Nasdaq, but this is the setup that the bulls have be able to handle quite well. There is plenty of overhead resistance, especially as the S&P 500 heads for 1350, but that's just one of those quaint old considerations that haven't mattered in the last couple years.

We still have a good setup for the bears, but they need to show some resolve and make the bulls at least a little nervous over the possibility of a failed bounce. It is almost sad how badly the bears have done despite having some negatives to work with.

I'm sure I don't need to point out that there was endless chatter today about the LNKD IPO. Perhaps it has been entertaining, but from what I read it sure wasn't very helpful for anyone who actually traded the stock. It was just an overhyped situation that attracted a lot of hot money because there wasn't much else of interest. It closed a bit weak, and that should help to cool the momentum quickly. It was interesting but not very meaningful.

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