Eight Up Days in a Row

Market Action:
How can we say this?  There was No action on Tuesday.  The Dow traded in a 35 point range and volume was light again.  There was some movement in tech land as traders bought INTC just because the chart looks good or because there hasn’t been as much bad press surrounding it like there is over at AMD.  AMAT was also up today on an upgrade.

After the market closed, we heard from AA (Alcoa) with the first of the earnings announcements for the quarter.  The news was good and the company seemed to be making good on some of its promises.  AA has been on a tear over the past few months being one of the hottest Dow stocks of the year, up over 10%.  So, AA kicked off the earnings season with a big win.

Earlier in the day, D.R. Horton, the nation’s largest home builder by number of units, reported a 37% drop in orders in the last quarter.  According to the WSJ, this may be “an indication that the crucial spring home-selling season is proving to be weaker than many builders had hoped.”  The report indicated that the dollar value of orders dropped from $4.4 billion a year earlier to $2.6 billion.  Orders in California posted the largest drop, 59%.  Ouch.

Opinion/Analysis:
There really isn’t much to say after three days of total boredom in the stock market.  The real action is occurring over in the commodities but we don’t want to focus on them until we see some clear direction in the stock market.  

Maybe the market can give us more to chew on over the next few days.  With volume so low, we don’t know if they can even keep the market open (ok, maybe they can), let alone keep us awake.

That said, the Dow has now made it eight days in a row with a plus sign.  In the last four days, the Dow has been up 63 points.  Yes, we know, it was up but it is just not doing anything.  We would even take the up scenario where the Dow spurts to a new high leaving the rest of the indexes behind.  Wait a minute; we need to be careful what we wish for.  Strike that comment.

Dow Industrials:  12,573.85  +4.71
VIX: 12.68
HUI:  358.11
QQQQ:  44.68
QQQRS:  1.26 bid
QQQRT:  1.78 bid
RYVNX:   16.38
RYAIX:  21.18
RYCWX:  35.32
TLT:  87.43
BEGBX:  13.88