Before the Open (Mar 5)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Australia, China, India and Taiwan each did well. Europe is currently mostly up. Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Amsterdam, Norway, Stockholm, Italy and Switzerland are posting solid gains. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up.
The world markets are on fire. Much of the recent selling pressure can be traced back to the FOMC Minutes where it was revealed not all Fed officials were on board with keeping rates low for such a long period of time. In fact some officials believe the punch bowl should be deliberately removed too early instead of too late so that a new bubble won’t form. But these hawkish comments have subsided the last week; several officials have publicly stated their support of the Fed’s current stance. And the market has responded with recapturing most of the losses. The S&P has already recovered the loss from the single biggest down day in several months, and as of today’s open, it’ll be within a couple points of recovering the market’s biggest 2-day loss in a couple months.
The market has made a habit of ignoring bad news, and now over the last couple months, it’s been pretty good about ignoring short and intermediate term technicals. Several indicators suggest a lack of participation, but somehow the market has continued to post gains. The AD line has lagged; the AD volume has lagged; the % of stocks making new 2-day highs and the % of stocks above their 20-day MAs has been declining for two weeks. Volatility has expanded. Across-the-board the technicals hint at a small group of stocks doing the heavy lifting while a good portion of the market’s individual stocks are not participating to the same degree.
It is what it is. My stance remains the same. Trade only the good set ups; manage positions wisely. Anything goes day to day, but over the next month I still lean to the downside. If the breadth indicators improve, then I’ll change my toon. More after the close.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers