Bear Mountain Bull

It’s time again for a little BMB R&R, especially with the market behaving as bizarrely as it’s been. Maybe if we stop watching it start to behave a little better…

Posting will be very light and variable over the course of this week, but we’ll put up an open thread each market day for our readers to comment on the day’s market activity or to post any interesting links they might run across.

Check the space below for whatever the latest might be during this ‘off’ time, and please visit the various sites in the ‘Links’ and ‘Regular Stops’ for up-to-date market news and analysis.

BMB will be back in full swing by next weekend.

The markets took off in the morning after the October jobs report. Some give and take followed over the course of the day, but when all was said and done all three major indices finished in the black again today.

The Dow Industrials gained 72 points (+0.7) to 10,388, the Nasdaq added 15 points (+0.8%) to close at 2039 and the S&P managed a 4 point move (+.4%) to 1166. The Russell 2000 added 2 points (+0.3%). Volume was strong again today.

Advancers actually trailed decliners by a few on the NYSE, but the Nasdaq saw 3 stocks higher for every 2 lower. Up volume/down volume ran 2 to 1 on the NYSE and 7 to 3 on the Nasdaq. Again, there were many more highs than new lows.

Many industry groups moved ahead again today, but the moves were a little more modest. Gold stocks led the way, picking up 2.4%, computer hardware stocks gained 2.0% and biotechs added 1.7%. The biggest losing group was REITs, falling 2.8%.

A few of the leading stocks in the market took hits this week: Google dropped 11%, Research In Motion gave up nearly 12% and Qualcomm fell 8% on the week.

BMB has to question the rationality of what’s going on in the market when Sears is up over 26% on 10 times average volume. I mean, let’s get real. Yeah sure, so Vornado bought up 4.5% of the company.

Is that worth an extra 26%? C’mon folks, I think we need to get a grip here…

Update: More info and analysis on the Sears move.

Today’s glowing jobs report caused quite a reaction in the bond market, bringing an increased likelihood of short-term interest rate hikes coming from the Fed over the next few months. The yield on the 10-year Treasury has jumped from 4.07% to 4.20% percent today.

Gold moves to multi-year highs. The re-election of President Bush and this morning’s strong job numbers haven’t done much to bolster the weakening dollar.

October job report comes in strong - unemployment up a tick.

While too much Bear Mountain Bull is never a bad thing, too much bullish sentiment can be bad for a rally’s health.