chartMarkets were down sharply for the entire day ahead of the Friday jobless report. The fourth quarter of the year started off with a strong sell off that was broadly seen across all sectors. Today many were linking this as a timely shake down of the 50% rise we have seen in the markets so far. I know, its the same logic again and again, but like a person working out to get strong, you need to take breathers to build muscle and the markets are the same. We need a bull back. The longer the delay, the strong the correction will be and this could ignite the panic we saw last year.

Along with the strong sell off in stocks, the commodities also fell with the only good sign was the dollar which was finally off after being heavily oversold for the past few months. Thursday the sell off was instigated by a surprise increase in weekly jobless claims and decrease in consumer confidence which was a reversal of the sentiment many investors had in the previous month.

Here is the market summary for Thursday:

Looking at Friday, all eyes will be on the jobless claims report. Many are anticipating a decline, anything beyond this will potentially pull the markets strongly lower. Be vigilant on the holdings you have. I got stung on (CHCI) today which was once up near $1.20 and is now down to $0.92. Its pennies when you subtract, but I always focus on the percent gain or losses as its a more real indicator. I will put this stock in the long term basket as I took off my stop loss and will just ride it. A gambler? Maybe. I have done fine this year and want to see what the outcome on this gem can yield. If the stock seriously begins to fall apart on massive sell-off I will get out, but for now, I’ll take the hits.

Hopefully markets will start following indicators as looking at the previous week, there was a outside reversal. This is when the markets set a new high but retract before the markets close and finish lower than the open.

Factory orders will also be an indicator will be announced on Friday.

News:
GM, Toyota Target U.S. Sales Gains After Post-‘Clunkers’ Slump

NYMEX-Crude ends up on Iran worry, firm gasoline.
– I talked about this happening because of Iran problems and 5 days later, it came true. Easy.

Accenture 4Q profit drops 41 percent

Happy Investing!

Aman, MBA

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