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.

Research In Motion (RIMM) was all over the map today, affected by a court ruling in a patent case against them.

The markets stayed quiet until after the Fed’s interest rate hike in mid-afternoon, then staged a modest rally into the close. The Dow gained 38 points (+0.4%) to 10676, the S&P 500 added 5 points (+0.4%) to 1203 and the Nasdaq moved up 11 points (+0.5%) to 2160. The Russell 2000 added 5 points to move to 643, and the bond market thumbed its nose at the Fed’s raising of short-term rates, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield down even further to 4.13%.

Internals were slightly positive with advances leading declines about 5 to 4, and up volume beating out down volume by almost 2 to 1 on the NYSE, but running about even on the Nasdaq. There were 413 new highs and only 30 new lows.

Only a few groups made significant moves, with oil service (+1.9%) and semiconductors (+1.9%) leading the way on the up side, and networking stocks (-1.2%) heading up the down column.

The US Dollar managed slight gains against other major currencies, gold prices slid back to just above $435/ounce, and crude oil moved up to $41.86/barrel.

BMB has heard a number of times recently that insider selling is at a very high level.

While I agree that it might not be the most encouraging sign for the market’s future, I’m not so sure I can blame ‘em for selling. Hey, the S&P 500 is at a 3-year high. If I were an exec and my company’s stock had just had a nice run — you know, like at Apple, for example, where the stock has tripled in the last year. I think I’d be rakin’ in some profits too.

In what was a surprise to absolutely no one, the FOMC raised the fed funds rate another 1/4 point to 2.25%.

The bond market continues to completely ignore the Fed’s actions and the yield curve continues to flatten, as the yield on the 10-year Treasury remains at 4.15%.

Employers say they’re planning to hire more workers next year. We’ll see if they actually do it.

That information also stands in contrast to the increasing number of job cuts being reported.

The market had bid up the stock of The Cooper Companies (COO) from $69.65 to $74.70 over the past two days. Today, the medical products company cut its earnings outlook for 2005-07. Bam!! Stock currently trading at $69.05.

Oops.