August 2009 Archives

The day started of fin promising fashion for the bears as the indices gapped down in sympathy with a big drop in the Chinese market. But the bears were not able to capitalize on that early weakness. The market just meandered sideways for the rest of the session. There was minimal technical damage done to the indices today. I've made some minor downgrades to the short-term trends in the trend table but I don't think the bulls need to sweat as long as the March trendlines hold. Absent any big news I'm not expecting much out of the market this week, ahead of Labor Day, except possibly on Friday after the payroll data.

Downgrades to the short-term trends today...

I've been waiting for something interesting to happen so that my recap would consist of something other than "see the previous recap". Well today was almost interesting. We finally, and temporarily, broke out of the tight trading ranges the indices have been in all week. The result, however, was the same as every other day this week -- small changes in price. The bulls can take heart in the fact that old resistance from the early August highs is turning into support. Both the S&P and Nasdaq probed those August highs this morning and were able to bounce right off of them. The Nasdaq also tested the nice round number of 2,000, which should be psychological support. Still, I'd call this whole week a stalemate with a slight edge to the bulls for being able to defend support. The bears are going to need a serious catalyst to get this market to drop, especially in the face of month-end mark-ups.

No changes

Earlier this morning I watched a short film that I TiVo'd the other day. It's a profile of a the South China Mall in Dongguan, China which is twice the size of the Mall of America. The problem is that the geniuses who developed the mall built it in the middle of nowhere. There are no freeways nearby, nor is there an airport. I guess they thought "build it and they will come" but it didn't work out that way. For the first minute or so that i was watching it I thought the mall was still under construction. But it had actually been open for a while. (I'm late to this story. The mall was opened in 2005 and I think this film was shot in 2008.) What's more, a government funded group bought the property from the previous owners in order to save it from bankruptcy. Hmm, a government funded bailout. Why does that sound familiar?

Here's a link to the video -- Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall. There's also an interview with the filmmaker.

P.S. This also reminds me of a photo essay on Dubai that I recently saw in Fast Company magazine. Ah, such folly.

I just knew I was going to see a lot of shorts in my scans tonight. There were lots of shooting star(ish) candles made today but to my surprise I saw very little that I'd feel comfortable shorting. So many stocks just look like they're taking a needed rest. In addition, the indices are perched atop what should now be support. So while I'd love to try to nail a top here I'll at least have to wait until the broader market shows some significant weakness by at least slipping back into the early August trading ranges.

No changes

The bulls did a good job of defending Monday's low this morning after a gap down open. There were rumors that talk of a second stimulus provided fuel for the follow-on buying that came around noon. I suspect that options expiration games had something to do with that as well. It sure seems like the S&P *wants* to be pinned to 1,000 for Friday's expiration. I guess Nasdaq 2,000 isn't out of the question either. Pins games or not, it seems that we're in for more range-bound trading. Volume was up on the Nasdaq and slightly lower on the S&P but was below average on both indices. That may be a common occurrence as we head into Labor Day.

No changes

The bears must really be hating this market. Right after all the news about how much short interest has dropped, indicating that they were being forced out of their positions, we get a day which would have been a nice payoff. In a flash the indices are at new August lows. There was no serious volume to accompany today's drop and the indices are still above their March trendlines. That makes me think that this is nothing but a normal pullback in a larger uptrend. The bears will need to break some of the support levels in the charts below, especially the June highs, in order to get the upper hand.

All the short-term trends switched to down today.

The day started of fin promising fashion for the bears as the indices gapped down in sympathy with a big drop in the Chinese market. But the bears were not able to capitalize on that early weakness. The market just meandered sideways for the rest of the session. There was minimal technical damage done to the indices today. I've made some minor downgrades to the short-term trends in the trend table but I don't think the bulls need to sweat as long as the March trendlines hold. Absent any big news I'm not expecting much out of the market this week, ahead of Labor Day, except possibly on Friday after the payroll data.

Downgrades to the short-term trends today...

I've been waiting for something interesting to happen so that my recap would consist of something other than "see the previous recap". Well today was almost interesting. We finally, and temporarily, broke out of the tight trading ranges the indices have been in all week. The result, however, was the same as every other day this week -- small changes in price. The bulls can take heart in the fact that old resistance from the early August highs is turning into support. Both the S&P and Nasdaq probed those August highs this morning and were able to bounce right off of them. The Nasdaq also tested the nice round number of 2,000, which should be psychological support. Still, I'd call this whole week a stalemate with a slight edge to the bulls for being able to defend support. The bears are going to need a serious catalyst to get this market to drop, especially in the face of month-end mark-ups.

No changes

Earlier this morning I watched a short film that I TiVo'd the other day. It's a profile of a the South China Mall in Dongguan, China which is twice the size of the Mall of America. The problem is that the geniuses who developed the mall built it in the middle of nowhere. There are no freeways nearby, nor is there an airport. I guess they thought "build it and they will come" but it didn't work out that way. For the first minute or so that i was watching it I thought the mall was still under construction. But it had actually been open for a while. (I'm late to this story. The mall was opened in 2005 and I think this film was shot in 2008.) What's more, a government funded group bought the property from the previous owners in order to save it from bankruptcy. Hmm, a government funded bailout. Why does that sound familiar?

Here's a link to the video -- Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall. There's also an interview with the filmmaker.

P.S. This also reminds me of a photo essay on Dubai that I recently saw in Fast Company magazine. Ah, such folly.

I just knew I was going to see a lot of shorts in my scans tonight. There were lots of shooting star(ish) candles made today but to my surprise I saw very little that I'd feel comfortable shorting. So many stocks just look like they're taking a needed rest. In addition, the indices are perched atop what should now be support. So while I'd love to try to nail a top here I'll at least have to wait until the broader market shows some significant weakness by at least slipping back into the early August trading ranges.

No changes

The bulls did a good job of defending Monday's low this morning after a gap down open. There were rumors that talk of a second stimulus provided fuel for the follow-on buying that came around noon. I suspect that options expiration games had something to do with that as well. It sure seems like the S&P *wants* to be pinned to 1,000 for Friday's expiration. I guess Nasdaq 2,000 isn't out of the question either. Pins games or not, it seems that we're in for more range-bound trading. Volume was up on the Nasdaq and slightly lower on the S&P but was below average on both indices. That may be a common occurrence as we head into Labor Day.

No changes

The bears must really be hating this market. Right after all the news about how much short interest has dropped, indicating that they were being forced out of their positions, we get a day which would have been a nice payoff. In a flash the indices are at new August lows. There was no serious volume to accompany today's drop and the indices are still above their March trendlines. That makes me think that this is nothing but a normal pullback in a larger uptrend. The bears will need to break some of the support levels in the charts below, especially the June highs, in order to get the upper hand.

All the short-term trends switched to down today.

The day started of fin promising fashion for the bears as the indices gapped down in sympathy with a big drop in the Chinese market. But the bears were not able to capitalize on that early weakness. The market just meandered sideways for the rest of the session. There was minimal technical damage done to the indices today. I've made some minor downgrades to the short-term trends in the trend table but I don't think the bulls need to sweat as long as the March trendlines hold. Absent any big news I'm not expecting much out of the market this week, ahead of Labor Day, except possibly on Friday after the payroll data.

Downgrades to the short-term trends today...

I've been waiting for something interesting to happen so that my recap would consist of something other than "see the previous recap". Well today was almost interesting. We finally, and temporarily, broke out of the tight trading ranges the indices have been in all week. The result, however, was the same as every other day this week -- small changes in price. The bulls can take heart in the fact that old resistance from the early August highs is turning into support. Both the S&P and Nasdaq probed those August highs this morning and were able to bounce right off of them. The Nasdaq also tested the nice round number of 2,000, which should be psychological support. Still, I'd call this whole week a stalemate with a slight edge to the bulls for being able to defend support. The bears are going to need a serious catalyst to get this market to drop, especially in the face of month-end mark-ups.

No changes

Earlier this morning I watched a short film that I TiVo'd the other day. It's a profile of a the South China Mall in Dongguan, China which is twice the size of the Mall of America. The problem is that the geniuses who developed the mall built it in the middle of nowhere. There are no freeways nearby, nor is there an airport. I guess they thought "build it and they will come" but it didn't work out that way. For the first minute or so that i was watching it I thought the mall was still under construction. But it had actually been open for a while. (I'm late to this story. The mall was opened in 2005 and I think this film was shot in 2008.) What's more, a government funded group bought the property from the previous owners in order to save it from bankruptcy. Hmm, a government funded bailout. Why does that sound familiar?

Here's a link to the video -- Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall. There's also an interview with the filmmaker.

P.S. This also reminds me of a photo essay on Dubai that I recently saw in Fast Company magazine. Ah, such folly.

I just knew I was going to see a lot of shorts in my scans tonight. There were lots of shooting star(ish) candles made today but to my surprise I saw very little that I'd feel comfortable shorting. So many stocks just look like they're taking a needed rest. In addition, the indices are perched atop what should now be support. So while I'd love to try to nail a top here I'll at least have to wait until the broader market shows some significant weakness by at least slipping back into the early August trading ranges.

No changes

The bulls did a good job of defending Monday's low this morning after a gap down open. There were rumors that talk of a second stimulus provided fuel for the follow-on buying that came around noon. I suspect that options expiration games had something to do with that as well. It sure seems like the S&P *wants* to be pinned to 1,000 for Friday's expiration. I guess Nasdaq 2,000 isn't out of the question either. Pins games or not, it seems that we're in for more range-bound trading. Volume was up on the Nasdaq and slightly lower on the S&P but was below average on both indices. That may be a common occurrence as we head into Labor Day.

No changes

The bears must really be hating this market. Right after all the news about how much short interest has dropped, indicating that they were being forced out of their positions, we get a day which would have been a nice payoff. In a flash the indices are at new August lows. There was no serious volume to accompany today's drop and the indices are still above their March trendlines. That makes me think that this is nothing but a normal pullback in a larger uptrend. The bears will need to break some of the support levels in the charts below, especially the June highs, in order to get the upper hand.

All the short-term trends switched to down today.

The day started of fin promising fashion for the bears as the indices gapped down in sympathy with a big drop in the Chinese market. But the bears were not able to capitalize on that early weakness. The market just meandered sideways for the rest of the session. There was minimal technical damage done to the indices today. I've made some minor downgrades to the short-term trends in the trend table but I don't think the bulls need to sweat as long as the March trendlines hold. Absent any big news I'm not expecting much out of the market this week, ahead of Labor Day, except possibly on Friday after the payroll data.

Downgrades to the short-term trends today...

I've been waiting for something interesting to happen so that my recap would consist of something other than "see the previous recap". Well today was almost interesting. We finally, and temporarily, broke out of the tight trading ranges the indices have been in all week. The result, however, was the same as every other day this week -- small changes in price. The bulls can take heart in the fact that old resistance from the early August highs is turning into support. Both the S&P and Nasdaq probed those August highs this morning and were able to bounce right off of them. The Nasdaq also tested the nice round number of 2,000, which should be psychological support. Still, I'd call this whole week a stalemate with a slight edge to the bulls for being able to defend support. The bears are going to need a serious catalyst to get this market to drop, especially in the face of month-end mark-ups.

No changes

Earlier this morning I watched a short film that I TiVo'd the other day. It's a profile of a the South China Mall in Dongguan, China which is twice the size of the Mall of America. The problem is that the geniuses who developed the mall built it in the middle of nowhere. There are no freeways nearby, nor is there an airport. I guess they thought "build it and they will come" but it didn't work out that way. For the first minute or so that i was watching it I thought the mall was still under construction. But it had actually been open for a while. (I'm late to this story. The mall was opened in 2005 and I think this film was shot in 2008.) What's more, a government funded group bought the property from the previous owners in order to save it from bankruptcy. Hmm, a government funded bailout. Why does that sound familiar?

Here's a link to the video -- Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall. There's also an interview with the filmmaker.

P.S. This also reminds me of a photo essay on Dubai that I recently saw in Fast Company magazine. Ah, such folly.

I just knew I was going to see a lot of shorts in my scans tonight. There were lots of shooting star(ish) candles made today but to my surprise I saw very little that I'd feel comfortable shorting. So many stocks just look like they're taking a needed rest. In addition, the indices are perched atop what should now be support. So while I'd love to try to nail a top here I'll at least have to wait until the broader market shows some significant weakness by at least slipping back into the early August trading ranges.

No changes

The bulls did a good job of defending Monday's low this morning after a gap down open. There were rumors that talk of a second stimulus provided fuel for the follow-on buying that came around noon. I suspect that options expiration games had something to do with that as well. It sure seems like the S&P *wants* to be pinned to 1,000 for Friday's expiration. I guess Nasdaq 2,000 isn't out of the question either. Pins games or not, it seems that we're in for more range-bound trading. Volume was up on the Nasdaq and slightly lower on the S&P but was below average on both indices. That may be a common occurrence as we head into Labor Day.

No changes

The bears must really be hating this market. Right after all the news about how much short interest has dropped, indicating that they were being forced out of their positions, we get a day which would have been a nice payoff. In a flash the indices are at new August lows. There was no serious volume to accompany today's drop and the indices are still above their March trendlines. That makes me think that this is nothing but a normal pullback in a larger uptrend. The bears will need to break some of the support levels in the charts below, especially the June highs, in order to get the upper hand.

All the short-term trends switched to down today.

The day started of fin promising fashion for the bears as the indices gapped down in sympathy with a big drop in the Chinese market. But the bears were not able to capitalize on that early weakness. The market just meandered sideways for the rest of the session. There was minimal technical damage done to the indices today. I've made some minor downgrades to the short-term trends in the trend table but I don't think the bulls need to sweat as long as the March trendlines hold. Absent any big news I'm not expecting much out of the market this week, ahead of Labor Day, except possibly on Friday after the payroll data.

Downgrades to the short-term trends today...

I've been waiting for something interesting to happen so that my recap would consist of something other than "see the previous recap". Well today was almost interesting. We finally, and temporarily, broke out of the tight trading ranges the indices have been in all week. The result, however, was the same as every other day this week -- small changes in price. The bulls can take heart in the fact that old resistance from the early August highs is turning into support. Both the S&P and Nasdaq probed those August highs this morning and were able to bounce right off of them. The Nasdaq also tested the nice round number of 2,000, which should be psychological support. Still, I'd call this whole week a stalemate with a slight edge to the bulls for being able to defend support. The bears are going to need a serious catalyst to get this market to drop, especially in the face of month-end mark-ups.

No changes

Earlier this morning I watched a short film that I TiVo'd the other day. It's a profile of a the South China Mall in Dongguan, China which is twice the size of the Mall of America. The problem is that the geniuses who developed the mall built it in the middle of nowhere. There are no freeways nearby, nor is there an airport. I guess they thought "build it and they will come" but it didn't work out that way. For the first minute or so that i was watching it I thought the mall was still under construction. But it had actually been open for a while. (I'm late to this story. The mall was opened in 2005 and I think this film was shot in 2008.) What's more, a government funded group bought the property from the previous owners in order to save it from bankruptcy. Hmm, a government funded bailout. Why does that sound familiar?

Here's a link to the video -- Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall. There's also an interview with the filmmaker.

P.S. This also reminds me of a photo essay on Dubai that I recently saw in Fast Company magazine. Ah, such folly.

I just knew I was going to see a lot of shorts in my scans tonight. There were lots of shooting star(ish) candles made today but to my surprise I saw very little that I'd feel comfortable shorting. So many stocks just look like they're taking a needed rest. In addition, the indices are perched atop what should now be support. So while I'd love to try to nail a top here I'll at least have to wait until the broader market shows some significant weakness by at least slipping back into the early August trading ranges.

No changes

The bulls did a good job of defending Monday's low this morning after a gap down open. There were rumors that talk of a second stimulus provided fuel for the follow-on buying that came around noon. I suspect that options expiration games had something to do with that as well. It sure seems like the S&P *wants* to be pinned to 1,000 for Friday's expiration. I guess Nasdaq 2,000 isn't out of the question either. Pins games or not, it seems that we're in for more range-bound trading. Volume was up on the Nasdaq and slightly lower on the S&P but was below average on both indices. That may be a common occurrence as we head into Labor Day.

No changes

The bears must really be hating this market. Right after all the news about how much short interest has dropped, indicating that they were being forced out of their positions, we get a day which would have been a nice payoff. In a flash the indices are at new August lows. There was no serious volume to accompany today's drop and the indices are still above their March trendlines. That makes me think that this is nothing but a normal pullback in a larger uptrend. The bears will need to break some of the support levels in the charts below, especially the June highs, in order to get the upper hand.

All the short-term trends switched to down today.

The day started of fin promising fashion for the bears as the indices gapped down in sympathy with a big drop in the Chinese market. But the bears were not able to capitalize on that early weakness. The market just meandered sideways for the rest of the session. There was minimal technical damage done to the indices today. I've made some minor downgrades to the short-term trends in the trend table but I don't think the bulls need to sweat as long as the March trendlines hold. Absent any big news I'm not expecting much out of the market this week, ahead of Labor Day, except possibly on Friday after the payroll data.

Downgrades to the short-term trends today...

I've been waiting for something interesting to happen so that my recap would consist of something other than "see the previous recap". Well today was almost interesting. We finally, and temporarily, broke out of the tight trading ranges the indices have been in all week. The result, however, was the same as every other day this week -- small changes in price. The bulls can take heart in the fact that old resistance from the early August highs is turning into support. Both the S&P and Nasdaq probed those August highs this morning and were able to bounce right off of them. The Nasdaq also tested the nice round number of 2,000, which should be psychological support. Still, I'd call this whole week a stalemate with a slight edge to the bulls for being able to defend support. The bears are going to need a serious catalyst to get this market to drop, especially in the face of month-end mark-ups.

No changes

Earlier this morning I watched a short film that I TiVo'd the other day. It's a profile of a the South China Mall in Dongguan, China which is twice the size of the Mall of America. The problem is that the geniuses who developed the mall built it in the middle of nowhere. There are no freeways nearby, nor is there an airport. I guess they thought "build it and they will come" but it didn't work out that way. For the first minute or so that i was watching it I thought the mall was still under construction. But it had actually been open for a while. (I'm late to this story. The mall was opened in 2005 and I think this film was shot in 2008.) What's more, a government funded group bought the property from the previous owners in order to save it from bankruptcy. Hmm, a government funded bailout. Why does that sound familiar?

Here's a link to the video -- Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall. There's also an interview with the filmmaker.

P.S. This also reminds me of a photo essay on Dubai that I recently saw in Fast Company magazine. Ah, such folly.

I just knew I was going to see a lot of shorts in my scans tonight. There were lots of shooting star(ish) candles made today but to my surprise I saw very little that I'd feel comfortable shorting. So many stocks just look like they're taking a needed rest. In addition, the indices are perched atop what should now be support. So while I'd love to try to nail a top here I'll at least have to wait until the broader market shows some significant weakness by at least slipping back into the early August trading ranges.

No changes

The bulls did a good job of defending Monday's low this morning after a gap down open. There were rumors that talk of a second stimulus provided fuel for the follow-on buying that came around noon. I suspect that options expiration games had something to do with that as well. It sure seems like the S&P *wants* to be pinned to 1,000 for Friday's expiration. I guess Nasdaq 2,000 isn't out of the question either. Pins games or not, it seems that we're in for more range-bound trading. Volume was up on the Nasdaq and slightly lower on the S&P but was below average on both indices. That may be a common occurrence as we head into Labor Day.

No changes

The bears must really be hating this market. Right after all the news about how much short interest has dropped, indicating that they were being forced out of their positions, we get a day which would have been a nice payoff. In a flash the indices are at new August lows. There was no serious volume to accompany today's drop and the indices are still above their March trendlines. That makes me think that this is nothing but a normal pullback in a larger uptrend. The bears will need to break some of the support levels in the charts below, especially the June highs, in order to get the upper hand.

All the short-term trends switched to down today.