They say never short a quiet market and this may be true Thursday.
As volume remains subdued and there’s little supportive news, then the HFTs, among others are able to jam markets in any direction.
That’s the way conditions appeared this day.
Economic data showed a negative rise in Jobless Claims to 284K vs prior 267K and flat Wholesale Trade at 0.3% vs prior 0.3%. And, as mentioned late yesterday, Alcoa’s earnings were weak overall especially given some accounting gimmickry with prior add-backs to earnings. Why this kind of non-GAAP action is respected is beyond me.
Stocks rallied late as indexes lingered around unchanged until the 2:15 PM Buy Program Express hit the tape late.
Read more…