{+++}Good way to start the year. We had a gap up and then silence, as we traded sideways for the remainder of the day. Volume was anemic as usual but who cares, stocks went up. I’m starting to think that there may not be big volume for a while. Bespoke made some good points on Bloomberg TV this morning regarding the volume issue, and mentioned that since Lehman, Bear Stearns and about a thousand hedge funds went out of business volume has indeed been slow. I agree with that point, but I also know that Joe Sixpack (Mr.201k) ain’t back in the market yet. The question remains, will he ever come back? Sure, folks like us are there because it s our passion and maybe we trade for a living, but the middle management guy in a factory in middle America, at least in my opinion, has said “no mas.” However greed is a powerful emotion and no one wants to feel left out, so we’ll see how it develops from here.
IBM, AAPL ,JPM warrants, (not on list but mentioned ad nauseum by yours truly)and MEE had great days. VNO took the day off and is probably consolidating, VISN also acted well, up almost 5%. GS also mentioned recently has been running like a scalded monkey. GT is a short and popped about 5% the other way, it’s still about 50 cents from a a stop. There was news after the close that Apple wouldn’t be releasing the iTablet until March, the stock went higher in the aftermarket so it doesn’t seem to be an issue.
We need to be careful here, many stocks are hitting new highs and that can be a sign of a top or a correction looming. Personally, I think we have some more gas in the tank. The financials ripped today and that is a great sign for the bulls and if they do decide to take a leadership role here, we will go much higher.
Commodities should continue to run here, with or without a strong dollar, the decoupling has begun, but I do think the dollar’s rise could take a break here as the risk trade seems to be back on for now. This could be shaping up to be a perfect storm for the bulls. We’ll see.
See you tomorrow.