The Market Shakes Off Comments from Bernanke and Close Flat

Continued positive data from the housing market helped boost the market in the early going. However, the focus would quickly turn to Ben Bernanke’s speech at 12:15. Prior to his speech this headline appeared: BN 12:15 *BERNANKE SAYS FISCAL CLIFF WOULD POSE `SUBSTANTIAL THREAT. And during his speech he stated the Federal Reserve would be unable to assist if Congress did not avert the fiscal cliff. The market did not like the sound of this and sold off as volume picked up the pace. It wasn’t before long before buyers stepped up and supported the market pushing the major averages back to flat line at the close. Volume slid on the day, but with the Thanksgiving Holiday upon us light trading is to be expected. It is hard to ignore the support we saw today and we’ll be looking for a confirmation day to switch to buy mode. The market will get initial claims tomorrow, but attention will be drawn to the European summit and black Friday sales figures by retailers. This year more roughly 45% of Americans say they would like to forgo Christmas all together this year. One would conclude with an improving economy should produce consumers willing to purchase more. Perhaps we are seeing the effects of declining real wages due to inflation caused by a Federal Reserve printing at warp speed. Will opening earlier help sales? Time will tell, but looking from the outside it does appear sales have the potential of coming in on the low side of things. Then again, the market may ignore this and move higher. Price rules above all else. A couple of big technology stocks got hit hard today. HPQ and INTC both sunk to new lows as both stocks appear to be heading into the single digits. HPQ simply cannot turn itself around in a consumer dominated commodity business. INTC announced its CEO is departing in May and the news did not sit well with the market. We know CAPEX is falling and these stocks are certainly feeling the effects of decrease spending. We await a confirmation day for this rally attempt. It may be difficult to see one with Thanksgiving on Thursday, but we have seen stranger things.

The Fedral Reserve Rate Announcement Fails to Lift Stocks

There wasn’t much anticipated from the Federal Reserve today, but there was hope something may hit the wires impressing the market. New Home sales were slightly better than expected reaching a new high. However, nothing impressed the market at all and was unable to hold the morning gains. It is pretty pathetic when the market is unable to hold gains for one day. We remain very weak and in a sell signal and technology earnings continue to disappoint. Despite Buffett’s cheer leading for buying on the dip we continue to remain in weak price action. The fiscal cliff is just one issue facing this country. Many will point to the spending cuts and tax increases causing short-term pain for a fragile economy. However, the short-term view versus long-term view should be discussed. How long can we kick the proverbial can down the road? At some point we’ll need to have revenues exceed expenditures to pay off the debt and it won’t be fun. Another issue is capital expenditures or CAPEX. CAPEX spending continues to decline as the view of the future continues to be clouded. Firms are not spending their cash because they have zero visibility due to the current market environment. The Consumer is still deleveraging and corporations aren’t spending will not spell out a pretty picture for profits. Volume ended the day higher on the NASDAQ as the index continues to struggle. On the bright side of things the index remains above its 200 day moving average. Tomorrow the index will have two big components report: AAPL and AMZN. Both stocks do not look healthy at the moment and have pulled back from recent highs. We are not about to guess how these two stocks will react, but we do know when they do will affect the NASDAQ in a big way. AAPL is one of the most over-owned stocks. Many mutual funds and portfolios in general have large positions in the stock (12-13%). The exit door will be mighty crowded if holders begin to flee. Tomorrow is a new day, but what we know now is a very weak market action in the 4th year of a bull market (March ’09 – Now). Cash is king.