JPMorgan
J.P. Morgan upgrades Entergy (NYSE: ETR) from Neutral ...
May Day
Perhaps the prominent feature to Friday’s trading session was the fact that it was May Day. Not to be confused with the distress signals the bears have been sending out lately, the holiday across the pond meant that the vast majority of markets were closed in Europe and Asia, which, in turn, meant that trading was a little thin.
This is not to say that there weren’t items worthy of note or much in the way of intraday volatility. On the contrary; we got another batch of economic data that was better-than expected, some more drama relating to the bank stress tests, a brand new bankruptcy, and the usual array of earnings reports. But through it all, traders appeared a little distracted and it wasn’t until the last five minutes of the session that the outcome was determined.
What was also interesting about Friday’s trading was the fact ...
Should It Count?
Although the Dow wound up with a loss of 203 points and the S&P 500 fell another 3.2% on the session, the key question from yesterday’s trading, at least in my mind is: Should it really count as a bad day? After all, there were several positives and frankly, the decline didn’t really occur until the last 30 minutes of the session.
First of all, it was once again a positive that the U.S. market didn’t implode in the face of some pretty substantial declines in the overnight markets. Then it was encouraging that sales of new homes actually came in better than expected with an increase of 2.7% versus expectations for a drop of 2.2%. And finally, it was nice to see the market showing some semblance of stability yesterday – well, until the last 30 minutes that is.
That’s when the forced selling kicked in ...
An End To The Misery?
Here’s a link to listen to an Audio Version of the report
As we’ve been reporting, the bulls received a shot in the arm this weekend when Hank Paulson announced that the government was stepping in to take the reins of Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). Stocks initially celebrated wildly around the globe as the takeovers removed a great deal of uncertainty from the market. But, in the U.S., some traders were not sure the move changed much of anything in the big picture and stocks struggled a bit midday before rallying into the close.
Although there are plenty of people up in arms over the government’s move because it doesn’t exactly fit in with our free market society, the bull camp argues that the takeover is a net positive as it should help mortgage rates to finally come down a bit. The bottom ...
