I'm sticking with the 992.50 downside target, since the market continues to look so atrocious. While the broad averages seem capable of staying afloat, albeit barely, during the day, when there is zero interest, zero sellers, and only Kudlow to buy 'em half-heartedly, just let even a twinge of doubt -- about whatever -- creep in during the afternoon and stocks fall apart. This shouldn't be happening in the days leading up to the Independence Day holiday, and so we shouldn't be surprised if more weakness lies just ahead.
July 2010
Fleas Trade Blows Over DJIA’s Virtue
– Posted in: Commentary for the Week of March 8 FreeIt was the Battle of the Fleas yesterday in the final hour, with the Industrial Average’s maidenly virtue at stake. Earlier in the day, the broad averages had traced out the EKG of a motorcycle victim lying brain-dead on a gurney. Then, when the NYSE’s clock struck three, stocks broke lower, impelled perhaps by an anxiety attack over payroll data due out Friday. Selling commenced in earnest, with an initial pitch that threatened to put the Indoos into a 250-point kamikaze dive. Would the blue chip index be sullied and degraded by a symbolically evocative loss of 100 points or more? Or instead, would Wall Street’s one true White Knight – i.e., panicky bears covering short positions -- ride to the rescue, as nearly always occurs? Lo, with just ten minutes to go, the selling decelerated and reversed with the DJIA off 115 points. More nail-biting action. Two minutes left, and the Dow is now down 92 points, the matter still unsettled. Bulls and bears traded a flurry of puny blows, all of them aimed below the belt. A jab glanced off a buttock…a thumb sought purchase in a groin…a knee found its target in a thigh. Alas, bulls needn’t have worried. The Dow finished down 96.28 points on the day, achieving the same obscurity in the record book as a long fly ball blown back onto the warning track by a stiff gust of wind. *** Tesla Shares Fly A sibling called yesterday wanting our blessing for the purchase of Tesla (NASDAQ Symbol: TSLA) shares, the hottest IPO to come along in quite a while. The last time he called about a stock, it was just before eBay’s now-legendary IPO. An inveterate garage-sale junkie, he pleaded his case at the time, explaining that eBay was an idea that would succeed spectacularly.
