It's deja vu all over again with the S&P 500 back at the 50 day moving average. The S&P has gone no where fast since the end of August as everyone awaits the Fed and its day of decision this Tuesday.
11 or the 12 major S&P sectors tacked on gains today led by Basic Materials as uranium, steel and precious metals stocks moved up.
Financials took part in the rally thanks to Countrywide's (CFC) announcement that it has received an extra $12 bln worth of credit. It rallied nearly 14% which seems a tad bit rich given the gloomy metrics it disclosed this morning about its origination business and ever growing inventory of repossessed homes.
One group that was curiously absent from the rise -- technology -- the only down group in the S&P. Reports have been circulating that a Goldman Sachs analyst in Asia has been doing some channel checking and noted that Hewlett Packard has been cutting back on component orders. That's something to keep an eye open for. I likely won't have access to that report until early next week.
Elsewhere, crude had it first close above $80 at $80.09, though that remains short of the October life of contract high of $80.51 set last year when crude was contangoed up the whaazoo. These days the board is in the state of backwardation (higher front month prices) as, yes indeed, refiners see supplies as tight and are willing to pay $80 for a barrel. Crude, if you haven't noticed, has been up every trading session this month. At some point this market will correct, but there's no strong argument that says crude can't continue to follow the trend line and probe the $82 to $84 area in the weeks ahead.
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