12:50pm (EST)
The market has traded in negative territory for much of today’s session although the bulls are trying to extend Friday’s gains. The S&P and Nasdaq have sniffed positive territory but the blue-chips are still having trouble with the 12,800 level.
Economic news before the bell was mixed as Retail Sales dropped 0.5% compared to estimates for an increase of 0.2%. Backing out auto sales and gas, retail sales slipped 0.2% versus a forecast for an increase of 0.2%. The Empire Manufacturing report came in at 7 and change which was higher than the suit-and-ties predication of 4. This was still not an impressive number and futures hardly budged.
The bulls did get some good rumor news flowing as they try to pump up a possible QE3 announcement by saying the Fed will do or say something positive tomorrow. We have mentioned the lack of options Ben Bernanke has but water-cooler talk is that the Fed may do something with MBA’s (mortgage-backed securities). The latest June FOMC minutes hinted that the zombies were looking for more ways to stimulate the economy but these attempts are looking more and more like Europe’s failed efforts.
The fight to kick two cans down the road by Europe and the U.S. will eventually catch-up with the market but the bulls continue to cling and climb a wall of worry. We mentioned this week’s big events and we aren’t expecting much to change in the second half of trading as Wall Street gets ready for a flood of high profile earnings starting on Tuesday.
We were up late last night doing a video for our trading course members so for those of you who upgraded to 1-year memberships over the weekend, you should have received it early this morning. So far, everything we talked about, including the trading range, is playing out.
As we head to press, the Dow is down 60 points to 12,717 while the S&P 500 is off by 5 points to 1,351. The Nasdaq is lower by 14 points to 2,894. Subscribers, check the Members Area for the updates and stay on the alert in case we close or open any new trades.