(By Rich Bieglmeier) Oh heck, what's the point? Once again, Tuesday was another do nothing day with minuscule volume. Stocks ran in place and based on volume, nobody cares. Wall Street is on pause until Thursday morning at the earliest. For sure, Ben Bernanke's Jackson Hole comments will move the market Friday mornings, but just long enough for traders to head for the Hamptons after lunch for the three day Labor Day holiday.
GDP will take another crack at it and update 2nd quarter results before the market opens. It's old-news, and unless there's a big upside surprise, the market is likely to yawn at the results. After GDP, pending home sales might produce a hiccup up or down for stocks.
The news of the day that will receive the most scrutiny will be the Fed's Beige Book. The report assembles anecdotal evidence on what's happening economically for each of the 12 Federal Reserve districts. As sad as it sounds, Wall Street will look for signs of weakness so that QE3 can go from rumor to reality by September 12th.
Whatever the source, stocks better pick it up shortly. The NASDAQ is inches away from posting a bearish MACD cross-under, joining the Dow and S&P with the 50/50 sell signal on the charts.
On to our Wednesday short-term trade ideas:
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) proposed target price: $29 suggested stop: $25.60
Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (SBH) proposed target price: $32 suggested stop: $26.71
Trimble Navigation Limited (TRMB) proposed target price: $53 suggested stop: $47.28
Pool Corp. (POOL) proposed target price: $41 suggested stop: $37.90
Nike Inc. (NKE) proposed target price: $104 suggested stop: $94.80
That's it for this morning. Happy trading and we sure hope we have a better story to tell tomorrow.