Killing time
Last week the market had the opportunity to clarify its direction by either moving back up strongly, or by declining further. Instead, as the weekly trend analysis of the major indices shows, the picture remains decidedly mixed.
The Dow Jones Industrials continues to show the most weakness, while the Russell 2000 is now back to strongly positive after being mixed last week. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ are somewhere in between, with a negative bias.
Basically, strong stocks have continued to hold up while weak stocks have remained weak, with some – like 3M (MMM), Alcoa (AA), DuPont (DD), McDonalds (MCD), Tribune Co. (TRB), and Microsoft (MSFT) – reaching new recent lows. I took no action last week – content to wait and let time premium decay while the market decides its next move.
