Wednesday, December 20, 2006

12/20/2006 Morning Market Comments

At least the stock market was able to bounce back yesterday as the realization set in that the bond market was not completely freaked out about the wacky PPI data given the volatility of series in recent months. But this morning the folks over at Marketwatch note that stock futures are off the highs (click here). Editor's note: Since everyone and their brother already puts out the customary list of story stock movers ahead of the open each day, I am going to link a write through which I feel does the best job of summing things up going forward. What I will offer in my 'morning market comment' is hopefully some additional non-commoditized, unique insight.

While the markets rebounded yesterday, 17 to 15 breadth on the Big Board was nothing to write home about and put to call indicators have been on the rise. That indicator alone doesn't signal an immediate correction ahead IMHO, but it bears watching when the crowd is loading up on puts in some big names like AAPL, WMT and DELL - just to name a few. But for weeks I've been talking about 'seasonality' and this is generally a bullish period of time for the markets. But we have seen fear, or the VIX find a floor at just above 9-1/2 and actually even an unwillingness to stay under 10 intraday, so there are some folks out there a tad bit more on the defensive.

There's no major economic data today aside from DOE crude inventory data a little more than an hour from now.

Morgan Stanley being total sleazes for failing to produce emails in arbitration cases - using 9/11 as an excuse! (Click here).

One company not getting coverage on the story stocks lists: Sharper Image. I couldn't help but to notice a note out from DANN that comps at SHRP will be down 22 to 25% this month. OUCH.

Zune and Vista finally like each other: http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36497.

I continue to be in holiday shopping and family arrival preparation mode. Posting will be limited during daylight hours for the rest of the week. Check out the World Sunlight map http://www.die.net/earth/... pretty cool stuff as we close in on the shortest daylight day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Night has indeed become a very large shadow in this part of the world.

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