Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Markets higher on unsteady footing

Dow is up 36 as it struggles to gain traction, advancers are barely 3-2 ahead of decliners while NAZ is up 10.

Meanwhile MLPs are having a very good year, the Aleran MLP Index is up 1½ to 203. The chart below shows how well the Alerian MLP Index has performed this year when the Dow has been slipping badly.


MLPs vs DJI --- YTD





Other indices I follow are modestly higher in an unexciting day for stocks.


Consumer confidence fell to 37.7 in Jan from a revised 38.6 in Dec, a record low because of a weak housing sector & a worsening job picture. Consumers are just plain pessimistic, waiting to see signs of improvement.



DuPont (DD), a Dow stock, reported a loss in Q4, larger than analyst expectations, down pennies. This has become a routine story in the flow of earnings (losses) reports. Their decade long chart is fairly common for large industrial companies:


DuPont --- 10 years





An unexciting market is not a lot of fun to watch, but there may be more such days ahead. Dreary earnings reports can not get the better of enthusiastic buyers, the tug of war persists.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh man, this is like watching paint dry. This year didn't start the best. Will the markets ever get back to what they were at least before the holiday season? I wonder.

Best wishes,
Julie

Avi said...

Even thought they're up today,they're still stuck in a sideways rut.