Friday, July 15, 2011

Dumb $$/Smart $$

For the fourth straight day, the market closed weak after showing intraday strength. Market players are aggressively selling the upside spikes and that is producing some very unhealthy action.

It is often said that the "dumb money" acts at the open and the "smart money" acts at the close, which makes these strong opens and weak finishes rather worrisome. Adding to the negative picture, the S&P 500 is back below its 50-day simple moving average and the Nasdaq and IWM aren't far behind.

While technical support levels look precarious, it is all about the headline news lately. It is hard for either bulls or bears to be too comfortable with the potential of some new development catching folks by surprise.

Speaking of surprises, GOOG put up some solid numbers and is trading up sharply after hours. Hopefully this will shift the focus more toward individual stocks and allow us to focus more on stock picking rather than politics and global economics.