The market has been moving slightly higher this morning as Congress debates the $700 billion financial rescue package for the troubled credit markets. Wall Street is watching like a hawk to find out the details and there’s a lot riding on how this thing is set up. The Dow is up 22 to 11,038 after rising more than 120 points in the morning. The S&P 500 is trading higher by 2 points to 1,209, and the Nasdaq is in the green by 5 to 2,184.
Our buddy Bernanke urged Congress to get this package through in a hurry and warned “the implications for the broader economy could be quite adverse”…perhaps the biggest understatement of the year. Look, Congress will make this thing work, no matter what the consequences because they can’t announce this big of a package and then not have it go through quickly.
The government is taking some steps in the right direction but the fundamentals for many of the bank stocks and financial institutions are still weak. Yes, there could be a “cleansing” of the books but there will be more pain before it’s full steam ahead.
The dollar is also rebounding today, while gold stocks are taking a breather after Monday’s big advance. Some of the financial stocks we follow are getting to our targeted areas again:
Citigroup (C, $19.15, down $0.87)
Goldman Sachs (GS, $115.94, down $4.84)
Morgan Stanley (MS, $26.84, down $0.25)
Wachovia (WB, $15.04, down $1.56)
If we can get another 10%-20% drop it will be time to go long again on some of these names.
Rick Rouse
Rick@OptionsMentoring.com
