Friday, May 16, 2008

Little changed again

After a sell off in the morning, markets rallied in the PM to little change again on light volume of only 1.1B. Dow, NAZ & S&P500 were essentially even with advancers only slightly ahead of decliners. Today was options expiration making markets even more unpredictable. Most of the S&P500 have reported earnings for Q1. Excluding the financials, earnings beat forecasts by 10%. Sounds good except that those forecasts were guided down by managements. Oil had another big day, closing at 126.64, up 2.52.

Treasury Sec Paulson said markets are "considerably calmer" now & the economy should rebound in the second half of the year. Markets responded by rallying almost 100 points in the PM but Dow remains just under 13K. Next week, 13K will be tested again.

No comments: