Thursday, May 10, 2007

Friday Curtain Raiser

I've been out all day attending to various matters related to my children's education. It's amazing how time flies, with only about 5 weeks to go before the school year is over.

5 weeks has been about the winning streak for Wall Street and eventually all good things must come to an end. Just by simple chart recognition, let alone looking at something like Bollinger Bands, it wasn't rocket science to realize that the bears would get to re-assert themselves. Those furry creatures received a dose of ambition from weak retail sales, rising import prices and a fatter than expected trade gap.

With 1500 proving to be little more than a number today on the way down for the S&P 500, it would not surprise me if we saw the standard 3% pause that refreshes following the huge rally - meaning I'm looking for stronger support down at 1460.

Economic data could give either the bulls or the bears something to work with in the morning. 8:30 features a look at government retail sales figures (wouldn't it be funny if the federal figures showed strength inspite of what the retailers told us today as happened with last November's figures). Also at 8:30, the latest read on wholesale prices. The PPI is expected to show an overall jump of .7% and a core rise of .2%.

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