Good Morning. "Buy! No, Sell! No wait, did I say sell? I meant Buy! Yea, that's right, Buy! Unless... Well... Ok... No, let's Buy.... Yea, that's my final answer! But wait... Maybe I should..."
While it sound's idiotic, this is the type of indecision that appears to have overwhelmed traders (oops, I mean the computers) of late. One minute Europe's woes are back, contagion is spreading, the global banking industry is toast, China is going to bring down the world, and Apple (AAPL) is crashing. But the next - Wheee! - It's all good, buy em!
Although the bulls certainly won the round on Tuesday as the S&P 500 and DJIA appeared to break above their respective short-term high-water marks as well some of the moving averages that everyone on TV loves to yammer on about, I'm going to opine that the consolidation phase that began in the last month or so, remains intact. Sure, the bright green numbers were pleasant to see for anyone owning equities yesterday (my UPRO's did bring a smile to my face). And as expected, AAPL bounced back with a vengeance, erasing the prior day's entire shellacking with a pop of +5.1%. But seriously, how long can we expect a move to last in this market that has no memory? One day? Two?
The bottom line is that the uncertain market environment may continue given that it is earnings season once again and an options expiration week to boot. For example, no sooner had the NYSE's closing bell sounded Tuesday than first Intel (INTC) then IBM (IBM) missed earnings.