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 Nasdaq managed to poke up above its 50-day moving average today, but volume was less than convincing and the move was slapped back once again as it tried to break above the 2100 level.

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com

The market started off with slight gains this morning, and with the Nasdaq leading the charge for a change. But after holding those gains for most of the day, the major indices slid back and finished with mixed results. The Dow Industrials fell 4 points to 10937, frustrating the CNBC cheerleaders who had the champagne at the ready hoping for 11,000 today. The S&P 500 held a gain of 3 points (+0.3%) to 1225, and the Nasdaq led the pack with a gain of 20 points (+1.0%) to 2090. The Russell 2000 lost 1 point to 644, the Dow Transports gained 1.2%, the Dow Utilities gained 0.4% and the bond market held relatively steady with the 10-year Treasury yield ending at 4.30%.

Market internals leaned to the positive, with volume a tad on the light side. Advance/decline number were 17 to 15 on the NYSE but just less than even on the Nasdaq. Up/down volume ran nearly 3 to 2 on the NYSE, and more than 3 to 2 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows: NYSE - 362/14, Nasdaq - 171/47.

Networking stocks woke up today, gaining 2.0%, followed by semiconductors (+1.9%), internets (+1.6%), transports (+1.4%), biotechs (+1.3%), disk drives (+1.1%) and airlines (+1.0%). On the down side, steel stocks fell 3.3%, commodities stocks as a whole lost 1.1%, and gold & silver stocks fell 0.9%.

Crude oil prices gained 11 cents to $53.89/barrel, the dollar index rose 0.3% and gold prices held up above $434/ounce.

“U.S. consumer credit outstanding surged a far greater-than-expected $11.5 billion in January, the biggest gain in three months.”

The title of the article labeled the jump a “surprise surge”. It’s no surprise to me. All through the years it seemed as though everyone had more money than I did. Little did I know that it was just that everyone had more debt than I did. A lot more.

Boeing’s CEO was given the boot by the company’s board — and maybe by his wife, if he’s married — over a relationship with a female employee.

Idiot.

The weekly look at technicals and sentiment from Schaeffer’s.

So far this morning, the Nasdaq has managed to outperform the other major indices, and has snuck its way back above its 50-day moving average. We’ll see if it holds.