Monday, June 23, 2008

Today's Markets

-- There was a lot of negative employment news today. Citigroup announced it would cut 10% of its workforce. GM will cut truck production by 170,000 units. United will cut 950 pilots

-- Although Saudi Arabia said it would increase production, oil still rose in price.

-- Harvard released a study that says the housing market will take a long time to recover.



The SPYs opened with a quick bump but trended down until a little after 11 CST. Then they rallied until a bit before 1 CST before starting a fall into the close. Short version -- with the market waiting for the Fed's decision on Wednesday expect the next day and a half to be like this.



The QQQQs opened strong but quickly fell. They hit one bottom a bit before 11 CST, traded sideways, and then rallied until a bit before 1 PM. They sold off to the 50 minute SMA and tried to rally but couldn't maintain the momentum. They sold off into the close. Note especially the high volume of the last two bars and the gap down.



The IWMs -- like the SPYs and QQQQs -- had a nice opening spike. They sold-off to the 20 minute SMA and then tried to rally from that level. However, they couldn't maintain the momentum and fell. They traded sideways until a little after 11 when they rallied a bit. But they couldn't maintain their upward momentum and they eventually sold off into the close. Note the increasing volume on the sell-off.