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 managed to stop the bleeding today, with the major indices finish slightly off unchanged levels after sliding a bit into the close.

The Dow snuck back up by 25 points (+0.2%) to close at 10623, the S&P 500 gained 4 points (+0.4%) to 1188 but the Nasdaq brought up the rear again, slipping by a point (-0.1%) to finish at 2090. The Russell 2000 gained back 2 points (+0.5%) to 620, and bonds rallied a bit pushing the 10-year yield down to 4.27%.

Market internals took on a more positive look today, with advances leading declines slightly on both exchanges. Up volume/down volume was 8 to 5 on the NYSE, but just less than 1:1 on the Nasdaq. 71 issues managed to hit new highs, while there were 41 new lows.

Leading the moves to the up side were oil services (+1.9%), oil stocks (+1.7%), biotechs (+1.6%), natural gas stocks (+1.4%) and broker/dealers (+1.3%). On the down side were airlines (-2.3%), retailers (-1.7%), and internets (-1.5%).

Crude oil prices spiked again today by more than $2.00 to $45.56/barrel. The dollar posted gains for the fourth day in a row, and gold prices slid even further to near $421/ounce.

Do the airlines ever have any good news?? Continental needs to cut expenses - and soon - or face a cash crunch.

Why don’t they take out a home equity loan? That’s what everybody else does. Or maybe they could just print more money, like the Fed…

So far, a bit of stability in the markets today (and I say that quietly, not wanting to disturb the peace…). The major indices are all slightly positive, and market internals are also running on the positive side — and this despite a spike in oil prices of more than $2.00. Nice to see for a change after the selloffs of the past few days. Let’s hope it holds at least for a while so we can catch our breath.

A number of retailers reported sales figures today — some good, some not so good.

The new year’s first weekly jobless claims report brings the largest jump since the spring of ‘02.