The Market Today

Now I can get used to this! The market rallied strongly today with the S&P 500 jumping 1.22% and our Buy List rising 1.45%. Hey, we’re already beating the market for December. Today was the market’s best day since November 3.
Only two of our stocks went down, one was Donaldson (DCI) which had a great day yesterday. Varian Medical (VAR) made a new 52-week high and several other stocks are close to new highs. Also, Prudential initiated coverage of Frontier Airlines (FRNT) with a “neutral” rating. I’m not sure what a neutral rating means, but there you go.
Yesterday I talked about how Wall Street has become a dual market—energy stocks and everything else. Today was another good example of that. Here’s how the sector spyders performed today.
Energy………..3.17%
Materials……..1.95%
Tech……………1.52%
Discretionary..1.15%
Industrials……1.11%
Health Care….1.01%
Staples………..0.68%
Financials…….0.53%
Utilities………..0.38%
Notice how the other sectors are somewhat bunched together, but energy is off doing its own thing. It’s like this almost every day. Each day’s overall direction has almost no influence on what energy stocks will do.
If you want to beat the market in 2006, I think all you have to do is avoid energy. Plus, you’ll have less volatility.
The outlook for interest rates may be changing. Gold hit a 22-year high today. Futures traders expect that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again in two weeks. The futures also say that there’s a 90% chance of another increase on January 31, but only a 60% chance of another increase in March. If Wall Street thinks the Fed is done, the market could rally well into 2006.

Posted by on December 1st, 2005 at 6:14 pm


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.