INTC Disappoints Market

Here we are after four days of trading this week and we see the Dow Industrials dropping to the 10,755 level, remembering that the Dow closed 2004 at 10,783.  The Dow has been exhibiting signs of a top after trying several times in the last two weeks to overcome the 10,950 level but failing.  Yes, we know that the 200 points separating tonight’s close and 10,950 is a very small number.  The strength in the market place seems to have been used up on this very strong 2005 rally that has taken the Dow to 30 points less than last year’s closing price.  (yes, sarcasm rules)

The market had no idea what direction it wanted to go today starting modestly higher, and then dropping to the morning lows and then spurting up almost a percent about an hour into the session.  The market traded at that level for about another hour and then dropped back to the morning lows for another hour before trading up into the close.  This makes for a truly unpredictable trading situation, especially have the various sectors traded today.

After the close, INTC graced the scene with its mid-quarter update and tightened up its revenue guidance for the fourth quarter.  The market didn’t really think the news was too impressive and hit the stock for about 3%.  I don’t really know how it will trade in the morning due to the overnight futures having recovered a bit from the INTC news.  INTC has had quite a round trip these last few weeks having been right at 24.5 and moving up to 27.5 and tonight trading down to just under 25, the close I saw in two different places was 24.93 and 24.90.  

Next week we have much news for the market to trade on and there could be some volatile trading.  At the end of next week is the options expiration which can cause some extra volume with the volatility.  During the week we get to here from the Fed on their next interest rate hike, which would be on Tuesday December 13th.  Other news next week includes the CPI and reports on the twin deficits as well as several other fun and games.  We’ll be back on Sunday evening, see you then.

Dow Industrials:  10,755.12  -55.79
RYVNX:   18.75
TLT:  90.25
BGEIX:  14.72