As The Market Turns

We had lots of twists and turns in the past week on Wall Street. But, when all was said and done, we ended up with a split performance overall.

For the week just ended, both the Dow & S&P 500 finished down -0.4% and -0.2% respectively, while the Nasdaq & Russell 2000 gained +0.7% and +0.3%. Precious metals, technology (particularly telecom), water, and oil & gas equipment attracted the buyers while the sellers were heavy in homebuilding, automobiles, consumer services, and household products. Concerns over inflation and energy prices remained in the backdrop while everyone tried to figure out the future of Google (GOOG).

On the trading front, those of us with our noses to the grindstone had lots of conflicting data and indicators to sort through. None of which presented any great trading edge, other than to convince you that you were right or wrong depending on which data points you desired to hang your hat on and how your portfolio was already positioned. It's then no big surprise why the market overall didn't manage much upside traction.

If history repeats, March will have quite a few additional surprises in store. I, for one, look forward to the challenge even though it would be nice to have a few more lay-up trades once in awhile.

Have a great weekend! I'll see you bright and early Monday morning before the opening bell.