Glad to have your input, Ray. The room has individuals with very different styles; we don't always agree but the conversation stays lively.
For newbies drop by 50gains.com during market hours and say hi.
Still scratching my head over yesterday's rally - doesn't look too convincing unless we get a real follow through today.
From CBSMW:"Virtually all market sectors rallied, with techs spearheading the advance. Leading the pack in the broad market were shares of biotech, oil service, drug, natural gas and brokerage stocks. Check market stats and latest sector performance.
The market's ascent came a day after the Dow closed at a four-year low and the Nasdaq at a six-year nadir.
"We finally got some decent corporate news. We're seeing some positive pre-announcements after bad news from [companies] like Electronic Data Systems and Lucent left investors shell-shocked," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co.
While all rallies off oversold conditions start with short covering, Boockvar said the market's follow-through performance over the next sessions will tell the tale of sustainability.
"I don't know how much of this rally is based on quarter-end positioning [from portfolio managers]," noted John Waterman, managing director of investments at Rittenhouse Financial.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU: news, chart, profile) added on 158.69 points, or 2.1 percent, to 7,841.82, propped up by the shares of Honeywell, Intel, IBM, Eastman Kodak, IP, Walt Disney and Hewlett-Packard. Only Home Depot, AT&T, SBC Communications and Philip Morris fell.
One analyst said the market currently offers investors a rare opportunity, though he acknowledged that any recovery would be extremely slow.
"Rational analysis points to this period as an unusual opportunity, although the road back from a large down period is often slower than the decline, as it generally takes some time to rebuild confidence after a major period of disappointment," said Robert Dickey, managing director at RBC Dain Rauscher.
The Nasdaq Composite ($COMPQ: news, chart, profile) sprinted 40.12 points, or 3.4 percent, to 1,222.29 and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($NDX: news, chart, profile) climbed 36.83 points, or 4.4 percent, to 880.44.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($SPX: news, chart, profile) ascended 2.5 percent while the Russell 2000 Index ($RUT: news, chart, profile) of small-capitalization stocks added 2.4 percent.
Technicians remained wary about the market's potential to mount any sustainable rally.
Richard Dickson, technical strategist at Hilliard Lyons, said Tuesday's drop left the market "clearly oversold" over the short term. This, he continued, should produce at least a short-term, oversold bounce.
But Dickson noted that momentum, sentiment and trend indicators provided "no support for a bullish interpretation." They are, in fact, sending out sell signals and are more consistent with an established downtrend than with a trend reversal, he said.
"Therefore, any rally that might develop over the next few days should be in response to the market's short-term oversold condition and not the start of a rally off a major market low," the technician concluded.
Volume came in at 1.65 billion on the NYSE and at 1.70 billion on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Market breadth was overwhelmingly positive, with advancers cruising past decliners by 23 to 10 on the NYSE and by 22 to 12 on the Nasdaq. " |
