Monday, February 13, 2012

Barron’s Declares Dow 15,000 and Stocks Respond Closing Higher

Leading the way Small Cap stocks closed higher followed by the NASDAQ. Volume fell across the board, but coming off a weekend it isn’t entirely surprising volume was off. AAPL pushed through the $500 level for the first time. Another stock hitting $500 was ISRG; two big growth stocks hitting big milestones is a positive sign for the market. While volume wasn’t impressive across the board select stocks saw plenty of volume. Institutions certainly targeted a select few today and despite the overbought conditions this market continues to motor higher.

Besides AAPL and ISRG another stock making a splash was PCLN. The stock has been stagnant for quite some time. For almost a year the stock has been unable to gain much traction, but the move today is certainly a good one with volume up more than 75%. The stock is set to release earnings on 2/27. 2012 estimates have been coming down, but given the move today it appears there is a bit of excitement prior to earnings.

Riots in Athens were broadcasted throughout the world. The markets certainly cheered the passage of the new, new, new austerity bill, but a few folks in Athens weren’t in agreement. I just wonder if Greece will uphold to the agreements they have put in place. My money is they will not meet the austerity guidelines. We’ll be back again where we’ll be hearing another round of haircuts until 99.99% of Greece’s debt is liquidated. If other countries haven’t taken notice they should. Take the initial pain of the budget cuts to be better off later. We are going on year two of the crisis; it shouldn’t have taken this long.

After-hours Moody’s put a few Eurozone nations on negative watch. France was one of the countries and is a big deal. France and Germany have been the two countries financing bailouts. If France’s borrowing costs it will be increasingly difficult for France to support bailouts of the rest of the Eurozone nations.

Despite the Eurozone woes our uptrend continues higher. All the shenanigans going on across the globe really are just a discussion point. Even the cover to Barron’s is a discussion point. Perhaps we’ll look back and say today was the top or we won’t. While it would be fun to call the top, we’ll let price and volume dictate our actions.

The trend is our friend and until it breaks we’ll ride it. Cut those losses short.

No comments: