Daily Market Commentary

Stocks rallied on Thursday as the bears seem to have taken their normal early holiday break and let the bulls have their way. There was some late selling to take the indices off their highs, but there was a lot of green in the indices and small caps, which love the tax bill, led on the upside. The Dow added another 56-points with the S&P adding a similar percentage.
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Stocks were up early on Wednesday but dipped after the tax bill was passed by the House of Representatives and will be signed into law. The Dow lost just 28-points but that was 130-points off the earlier highs. The small caps held onto some gains as they benefit the most from the tax bill, and the Transports had a big day after FedEx posted strong earnings.
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Stocks pulled back a bit on Tuesday with the Dow slipping 37-points but we saw more moderate losses in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Small caps and the I-fund also took hits but as we look at the charts we'll see that they just did a little cleaning up by filling Monday's open gaps. Now comes the test. ...

Stocks gapped up on Monday morning as the tax bill inches closer to becoming law. The Dow gained 140-points, and the rally was broad spanning all of the major indices. This was even after John McCain said he would miss the vote on the tax bill, a much needed republican vote, but the stock market didn't flinch. The vote will be close but based on the market, investors do not seemed worry that it might not pass. ...

Stocks rallied on Friday after another obstacle to the Senate Tax Bill was removed. The Dow gained 143-points (+0.58) with gains near, or above, 1% in many of the other indices. It was a high volume rally on an expiration Friday (futures and options) so emotions were a bit higher than usual as investors jockey for position in front of the normally strong holiday season. ...