Oversold rally again

Dow is up 92, advancers over decliners 5-2 and NAZ gained 20. Following the drubbing banks took yesterday, bargain hunters are back to bid up those prices. The S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX is having a good day, but nothing really special.

Value 116.71

Change 5.19

% Change 4.7%

MLPs, REITs & junk bond funds are higher, finding their share of bargain hunters. The big drop in oil prices yesterday was the forgotten story. But today it's fairly quiet, little changed in the 48s.


The Conference Board reported consumer confidence in Mar inched up but remains at dreary levels. More low readings will be coming in the coming months.

• Consumer confidence up slightly in March, still near record lows- Reuters

Below is a chart from the NY Times plus a link to their article about 2 very strong camps of bulls & bears. Choose your side & there will be plenty of backers for your position.

Time to buy stocks. No, wait — time to sell them.

• A Pitched Battle for Turf Between the Bears and the Bulls- NYT

The president is off to London for the G-20 meeting where everybody will agree they're against the recession & that's about it. Most western European countries are not enthused by the whopper spending packages in the US (even though they lean left). Yesterday the president reassured everybody that the US does not want to manage the auto companies even though he is telling GM & Chrysler what to do & how to conduct their businesses.

Below is the track record for the Dow after the credit crisis struck full force Sep 15. It's difficult to get much meaning from price changes today with all the qtr ending trades going on. But Dow is down over 1100 in Q1. Grrr! Just one example of how bad this credit crisis struck is Citigroup, hard to believe it's still a Dow stock, was 18 in mid Sep.

Dow Jones Industrials -- 6 months