Stocks Stage Powerful Rally as Volume Swells

Mario Draghi and the ECB took center stage this morning announcing a new bond buying program. The ECB delivered on its rhetoric it would do all within its power to save the EURO. Stocks cheered the move and futures rallied. ADP employment figures came in better than expected as well as jobless claims. However, neither the ECB nor these economic reports got the market moving like the ISM non-Manufacturing index. Institutions stepped in a big way scooping up shares after the service sector expanded. Buying continued and the gains of the day were locked up with the market closing at its high of the day! A very bullish day and today is precisely the day we were looking for as a continuation of the summer uptrend. There are plenty of stories out there with all the hedge funds and other institutional players that are massively under invested. Headwinds like the fiscal cliff and European debt crisis have kept many market players from investing in this market. Missing out on today’s move is certainly going to set back many, but the problem really is having an opinion on the direction of the market. If you simply followed where price was telling you wouldn’t have missed out on the rally today. Ignore the headlines you read and follow the price action in the market. Sentiment has been mixed with neither side reaching an extreme level. This week’s reading from the AAII sentiment survey showed bulls and bears equal. The market has been consolidating its gains from the June lows and it is no surprise there was neither a bullish or bearish tint. However, it does showcase how many people missed the rally today. Now, will we see immediate follow-through from today’s action or do we see this rally fade? Until price tells us otherwise we are are going to push forward on the long side! We witnessed a very bullish day ahead of tomorrow’s job report. Unemployment is expected to hold steady at 8.3% and roughly 130,000 jobs added in the month of August. It would be nice to see the labor participation rate to expand and the unemployment rate to drop. That would be very nice. When all is said and done it is about price and we’ll act accordingly. Have a great weekend.