Friday, November 14, 2008
Up and Down Like a Yo Yo
On Wednesday we saw the Markets take a fall with the SPX falling 50 points. Thursday saw volatility returning but this time the bulls had the final say. The Dow gained a whopping 552.59 points to close the session at 8,835.25. The SPX added 58.99 points to end on 911.29.
During Thursday the SPX and Dow hit their October lows after Wal Mart and Intel announced some poor results and jobless claims rose more than expected. However the support levels of these lows were held and the bulls stepped in when they saw the cheap prices. Some commentators would see this as a good sign. I'm not so sure!
Jobless claims for the past week shot above 500,000 for the first time in seven years. Expectations were for a reading of 481,000 claims, but this was 34,000 claims short. The four-week moving average rose to 491,000, which is a 17-year high. Another negative in the report was the continued rise in continuing claims, which rose 65,000 to a level of nearly 4 million; a 25-year high!!
Friday’s session could be interesting given several key economic reports on tap, including retail sales for October. The general feeling (from watching CNBC!!) is that stocks have found a bottom, but this doesn’t mean we won’t continue to see volatility as earnings forecasts are brought down and economic news bears out the seriousness of the recession.
Until next time.
During Thursday the SPX and Dow hit their October lows after Wal Mart and Intel announced some poor results and jobless claims rose more than expected. However the support levels of these lows were held and the bulls stepped in when they saw the cheap prices. Some commentators would see this as a good sign. I'm not so sure!
Jobless claims for the past week shot above 500,000 for the first time in seven years. Expectations were for a reading of 481,000 claims, but this was 34,000 claims short. The four-week moving average rose to 491,000, which is a 17-year high. Another negative in the report was the continued rise in continuing claims, which rose 65,000 to a level of nearly 4 million; a 25-year high!!
Friday’s session could be interesting given several key economic reports on tap, including retail sales for October. The general feeling (from watching CNBC!!) is that stocks have found a bottom, but this doesn’t mean we won’t continue to see volatility as earnings forecasts are brought down and economic news bears out the seriousness of the recession.
Until next time.
# posted by Paul @ 3:52 AM 
