Reply #43: 12:41 watchin' the paint dry - volumes seem low - no? [View All]

[54anickel]

Dow 10,544.92 -7.90 (-0.07%)
Nasdaq 2,126.71 -2.30 (-0.11%)
S&P 500 1,188.06 -1.18 (-0.10%)
10-yr Bond 4.156% -0.005
30-yr Bond 4.825% -0.004
NYSE Volume 709,424,000
Nasdaq Volume 948,478,000

12:30PM : Little change in the past half hour, as the market continues to chalk up modest losses... A lack of notable earnings reports and very little corporate news has provided investors few catalysts to make changes to their holdings... Next Tuesday's Fed meeting also looms over the market with the FOMC expected to raise interest rates another 25 basis points... As it stands now, the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 are poised to close relatively unchanged for the week after two weeks of gains...NYSE Adv/Dec 1378/1740, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1285/1660
12:05PM : Stocks opened lower and have vacillated near the flat line most of the morning as mixed economic data and company specific-news have provided little conviction for either buyers or sellers... Early consolidation was fueled by a higher than expected increase - a reading of 0.5% versus expectations of 0.1% - in the Department of Labor's November PPI, due in large part to an increase in energy prices... A poor day of trading in Asia, in which Tokyo's Nikkei tumbled 0.8%, also contributed to the downward mood... A few positive developments, however, have kept selling efforts in check...

The core November PPI, which excludes food and energy, was in line with forecasts of 0.2%, suggest inflation was tame... The preliminary December Michigan Consumer Sentiment reading was 95.7 (consensus 93.5), which helped validate growing optimism among consumers regarding a strong holiday shopping season... Crude oil also found a floor of support near current levels ($42.57/bbl +$0.04) on the heels of OPEC's much anticipated 1 mln barrel decrease, after having sold off in recent days due to another strong build in weekly inventories ahead of OPEC's meeting...

Finally, recent news that Dow component General Electric (GE 36.49 +0.47) has authorized a $15 bln buyback program and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 from $0.20 has prevented the indices from falling far... Airline, transportation, disk drive, semiconductor, healthcare, retail and consumer staples have posted early losses while homebuilding, telecom services, energy, and brokerage stocks have traded in positive territory... NYSE Adv/Dec 1385/1671, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1340/1561

11:30AM : Choppy trading persists as the broader averages near the unchanged mark... Decliners on the NYSE hold a 17 to 12 edge over advancers while declining issues on the Nasdaq outpace advancing issues by a 15 to 12 margin... Down volumes on the Big Board lead the way while up volume (364) on the Composite holds a slight advantage over down volumes (283)... Some of the reason behind the latter's disparity appears to point toward a rebound in several technology names which investors may have felt were oversold...NYSE Adv/Dec 1293/1712, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1251/1587

11:00AM : More of the same as split industry leadership keeps the broader averages trading in a narrow range near intra-day lows... Sectors showing the most weakness early on have been airline (-1.2%) and transportation (-1.0%), despite a recent pullbak in crude oil ($42.50/bbl -$0.03)... Follow through from yesterday's drubbing has disk drive down another 1.0% and semiconductor off roughly 0.5%... Consumer staples, utility, healthcare and retail have also succumbed to selling pressure while homebuilding, telecom svc, energy, and brokerage stocks have all traded higher...NYSE Adv/Dec 1168/1793, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1200/1576

Advances & Declines
NYSE Nasdaq
Advances 1446 (43%) 1329 (42%)
Declines 1683 (50%) 1629 (52%)
Unchanged 177 (5%) 155 (4%)

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Up Vol* 305 (45%) 511 (55%)
Down Vol* 344 (51%) 397 (43%)
Unch. Vol* 19 (2%) 12 (1%)

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New Hi's 106 59
New Lo's 10 13