NASDAQ Stalls as the Market Ends Mixed

Friday’s early evening news regarding AAPL’s patent fight with Samsung helped boost the stock today sending the NASDAQ higher at the open. The initial pop in the NASDAQ was certainly attributed to AAPL’s move, but stock would stall out before the lunch hour. A steady decline into the end of the day with the exception of a last two minute rally had stocks near lows of the session. Volume ran higher on the NASDAQ, but with volume so far below average it is very hard to label today as a “stall day” adding to our distribution count. The current rally is hanging in there and with the final week of summer upon us trading should stay light until after Labor Day. Today’s price action wasn’t ideal for an uptrend. A gap reversal like we saw today is normally a bad sign for the market. However, with AAPL providing the majority of the boost for the NASDAQ and very light volume anything is possible here. We are essentially discounting the move in price due to the obscenely low volume. The real players will all return after Labor Day and we’ll certainly see volume pick back up. The lone bit of economic news came from the Dallas Federal Reserve Manufacturing activity index. Economists polled expected a drop of 6.5 while the reading came in better at -1.6. Essentially the Dallas Fed saw a slowing, slowing manufacturing pace. Later in the week we’ll get another GDP reading which will likely show tepid growth. Second quarter growth is slated to come in at a wonderful pace of 1.7%. If you did not detect sarcasm there was plenty of it in that last sentence! Where are our 4% GDP days? Perhaps at some point we’ll get there, but when is the biggest question no one can answer. It is nice to see some of our stocks soar. A prime example of one we’ll be taking some profits on is NTE. We’ll continue to take advantage of this market as opportunities present themselves. Headlines will start rolling with Bernanke at Jackson Hole this week and you never know with the ECB’s Draghi providing headlines. We’ll stick with our disciplined approach and follow price. We’ll let the guess work to others. Make it a great week.