Daily Market Commentary

Cyclical stocks like Caterpillar and United Tech led the way yesterday helping the Dow to a strong gain of 165-points, but that was almost 200-points off the early highs so we continue to see a pattern of early strength and late weakness in stocks. The other indices were basically flat on the day with the S&P 500 giving up almost all of its early 1% gain. ...

Stocks were down on Wednesday after another wild ride. It wasn't a severe down day, but it was a severe reversal. The Dow lost 167-points or 0.67%, but that looks a lot worse when you factor in the early 303-point gain at the highs just an hour or so before the closing bell, so that's a 470-point intraday turnaround. The S-fund was down a slight 0.15%, which is interesting because the index it follows was down 0.68%.
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Stocks were down on Tuesday, following up on the negative reversal on Friday before the long holiday weekend. The Dow lost 255-points and was the laggard with the help of a sell-off in Wal-Mart's stock. The Nasdaq led the way and was up most of the day before dipping into the red in the final hour of trading. ...

Stocks rallied early on Friday, but faded and erased some large gains. The indices finished mixed with the Dow adding 19-points or 0.8%, while the S&P was also basically flat. The Nasdaq was down but there were modest gains in the small caps and international funds.
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Stocks were higher again on Thursday with a 5th straight explosive rally. The 306-point gain pushed the Dow back above 25,000, but of course there were no hats and horns this time because it is still 1400 points below its high from a couple of weeks ago. Is that where it's heading, or will this relief rally run out of steam before then?

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