Friends
You, of course, have heard the term “melt-down” used when referring to the prices of shares of stock falling precipitously. We seem to be experiencing somewhat of a “melt-up” at the moment, as the stock market appears to have caught an enormous number of bears and the underinvested public flat footed as they scramble to take advantage of a rising market. Fundamentals? Well, let’s not go there for the moment. We have told you for weeks that the economic news has been lukewarm at best for most of the year. Nevertheless, fueled by easy Fed money, stocks have continued to climb a wall of worry, and the bears are scrambling to cover their shorts and stop the bleeding.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 121 points to finish the day at 15,354. The S&P 500 was up 15 points to close at 1666. You know what gold did right? Yes, it was down again as the precious metal fell $31 to trade at $1355. Oil was up $.90 to trade at $96.06 per barrel WTI. On the technical front, as the S&P held and eclipsed the 1657 level buyers seemed to be emboldened and we rallied higher in the last hour and a half.
So far, sell in May and go away sure hasn’t worked, has it? This market seems to want to surprise everyone with its strength and total resolve. Can we continue this unprecedented move without a correction of some sort? Usually, 5% to 10% pullbacks are healthy, as we saw several from March of 2009 thru 2012. This move since November of 2012 has not experienced any sort of pause. We continue to point to the fact that there are no alternatives to stocks, but one might add to that the fact that investors are beginning to feel very left out if they are still sitting in cash at the bank.
Just some things to think about over the weekend. Have a nice couple of days. Talk to you next week.
