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.

Gold futures close at new 16-year highs, $436 / ounce.

Don’t necessarily buy into the ’stiff resistance’ in Fallujah, however. The U.S. military is more than up to the task. For better info on the fighting there, check out Belmont Club.

What does this say about how contrived the actual reporting of a company’s earnings and Wall Street’s expectations of them has become:

Cisco disappointed Wall Street Tuesday with a first-quarter profit that was merely in line with estimates, rather than the customary penny ahead (emphasis added - BMB).

What, did Cisco forget that there was a “custom”? Somebody forgot to tell the new guy, and he screwed up and reported in-line — maybe even the actual numbers — instead. What a joke.

Here’s the article if you want to read it.

Pretty tepid action again today, as the major indices made little progress either up or down on average trading volume. The Dow fell a negligible 5 points, the Nasdaq picked up 4 points or 0.2%, and the S&P 500 fell less than a point. The Russell 2000 gained 0.7% and the 10-year Treasury yield was pretty much unchanged at just under 4.22%.

Advances led declines by a little more than 5 to 4. Up volume led down volume by 5 to 4 on the NYSE, but trailed down volume by the same amount on the Nasdaq. Once again, there were about 10 new highs for every new low.

The only industry groups that were able to manage moves — up or down — of more than 1% were airlines (+1.4%), housing stocks (+1.3%) and paper stocks (+1.2%).

Crude oil prices fell to the $47.50 range today, but that didn’t seem to help spur the markets. Perhaps today’s after-hours earnings report from Cisco and the Fed action on interest rates tomorrow will prompt a little movement.

Some sectors of this market are as overbought as they’ve been in a year.

BMB’s quick check of the charts shows the following 9-day RSI readings for the major indices:
Dow Industrials: 79.98
Nasdaq Composite: 81.41
S&P 500: 80.62

Some ideas on investing in a falling dollar environment.

A look at the S&P 500 charts over the past few years, and where today’s levels fit into the bigger picture.