February 12, 2009

After a week of market unimpressive starts the administration tossed out another trial balloon in the form of housing assistance which produced a 3 PM short squeeze. It’s that simple I guess. This is a script that’s hard to make-up but the new powers that be are roadtesting whatever might work.

The SPX traded down to near its recent 805 low as it hit 808. That’s when the news from the White House was leaked to Reuters of another plan. The timing was important and no doubt had the desired effect. And, this just in (just after the close natch) Commerce Secretary Nominee Gregg withdraws his name. Holy screw-up Batman!

Volume was heavier today and breadth was negative overall. You wouldn’t be able to tell about the former from Yahoo Finance as I think they’ve given up trying to figure it out for now.

Therefore, below is the WSJ data.

Okay, bulls or somebody got a good stampede going as markets led by the S&P 500 were approaching previous support. A news story was leaked to Reuters regarding another homeowners’ prop and we rallied. More negative news for Obama appeared conveniently after the close that his choice for Commerce Secretary (the 2^nd one) withdrew his name over policy differences. This adds to the lack of confidence in and notion that the new president is a rookie.

I don’t think much has changed really. The markets sold the news hard on both the stimulus package and Geithner. We got a little oversold, approached prior lows and got the spark bulls needed for a squeeze. End of story.

Holy smokes, its Friday the 13^th tomorrow! We get consumer sentiment in the morning before the long weekend. They can be really scary, especially if markets close lower tomorrow. That used to mean a gap open lower on Tuesday.

Let’s see what happens.

Have a great weekend!

Disclaimer: Among other issues the ETF Digest maintains positions in: QQQQ, IEF, TLT, TBT, GLD, DGP, GDX, EEM, EWZ, EWY, IFN an FXI.

Last 5 posts by David Fry

• MARKET COMMENT October 22, 2009 DRIVE-THRU SOUP KITCHEN 2009 So, what the hell was yesterday about anyway? - October 22nd, 2009
• MARKET COMMENT October 20, 2009 TAKING A BREAK It was a pretty strange day. - October 20th, 2009
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