Mid Day Recap

Monday, July 21, 2008

The stock market has not seen any significant moves today, and is currently trading around the flat line with the major averages mixed. Earlier this morning, the stock market opened modestly higher after Bank of America (BAC) continued the string of positive earnings reports from the major banks. Shares rallied as high as 12% intraday following positive commentary on the company's conference call, where it reaffirmed its dividend policy, said it does not see the economy slipping into prolonged recession and said increases in credit losses are manageable and the worst of the value decline is behind the company. However, shares of BAC have trended lower from there, giving up some of their gains, while the major averages trended lower for the first two and a half hours of today's session. While some individual names are still showing solid gains (AIG, BAC, FNM, FRE), the financial sector in general has reversed from its early highs and is now trading near session lows. Of the major averages, the Nasdaq is once again underperforming, with tech heavyweights Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) dragging. Dow is currently -18 to ~11478; Nasdaq is currently -3 to ~2280; S&P is currently 1 to ~1262... From a technical perspective, The major averages are all slight lower in sluggish trading moving through the midday session. The SPX has taken out Friday's intrasession high but has stalled just beneath its key 20day EMA @ the 1271 level before turning back lower. This is an important moving average that many short-to-near term traders will be monitoring for resistance. Market internals are mostly mixed with TRIN on both major exchanges elevated above the 1.00 level. However, market breadth remains positive with NYSE seeing a 1.7:1 ratio of advancers over decliners & NASDAQ currently slightly better than 1:1...

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