Finally, Some Volatility

This may come as a shock, people, but we actually have some volatility today. Unfortunately, it’s the bad kind. The market is again worried about concerns from Europe. (Will 2011 ever end?)

The S&P 500 is currently down 17 points or 1.3%. If that holds up, it will be the biggest fall all year and it will be nearly twice as big as the second-biggest fall this year.

There’s also a major divide in this market and it closely resembles the opposite of what we’ve seen most of this year. (Today is the opposite of what’s been happening this year which was the opposite of what happened late last year. So today resembles much of last year.)

So far, 2012 has been characterized by low volatility, rising stocks prices led by cyclicals and small-caps. Today, cyclicals, small-caps, financials and gold are getting hit the hardest. Financials are the worst-performing sector. AFLAC ($AFL) is down about 4%.

The only areas that are doing well are the defensive stocks. This means staples, utilities and many dividend stocks. On our Buy List, Reynolds American ($RAI) is slightly up while Sysco ($SYY) is slightly down.

Posted by on March 6th, 2012 at 11:31 am


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