9:00am (EST)
Well, the bulls finally showed up to the playground on Thursday as they ran past the bears after a close first half. We had a feeling coming into the week that Apple’s (AAPL, $516.39, up $3.35) shareholder meeting would put Wall Street in a good mood and they did for the most part.
There was no stock-split or dividend announcement, but today is Steve Jobs’ birthday, so it would be nice to see them honor him and the shareholders in some way on what would have been his 57th.
Apple admitted that the $100 billion it has in its coffers is more than enough to keep the company running at top notch and they were close to making a decision on a dividend.
As far as the market, the action was flat to start the session and the major averages quickly moved lower as it looked like another retest to short-term support. It was and the bulls once again bought the dip and were back in control by lunchtime.
The Dow added 46 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 12,985. The blue-chips kissed a high of 12,996 and it would be nice to see a close above 13K going into the weekend. The low came in at 12,882 as support has been strong at 12,800 all week.
The S&P gained a six-pack, or 0.4%, to close at 1,363 after reaching a peak of 1,364.24. The index traded down to 1,352 and 1,350 stuck like glue.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq popped 24 points higher, or 0.8%, to settle at 2,957. Tech went out near its highs and will try to take out Tuesday’s 52-week high of 2,965 before the closing bell. As of now, the index is higher by 5 points for the week and we would love to see at least a hold today at current levels.
We are still respecting the downside by taking smaller positions than normal but we mentioned in our Weekly Wrap there might not be a serious pullback until mid-March. We did say the market would sputter in February and it has to some degree but the dip is being bought more aggressively than we thought.
Futures are showing a solid open and we have added some new trades today on our Watch List. We don’t normally like to open new positions on a Friday but there is a NEW TRADE we are also trying to get into at the open. Subscribers, check the Members Area for the details.