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Federal Reserve Open Market Operations
The Fed's Open Market Operations desk performed a single repurchase operation last night - $4billion, overnight repurchase entirely in T-backed collateral.
Dammit Uncle Grease-span, you know that's not enough. Have da Boyz asked you to help them take this sucker down for a while, or are you too busy kissing political tuches on the Beltway cocktail circuit?
Regardless, the support at 1167 (posted to the RantPro mail lists) held several times, but even it gave way eventually and the markets set new lows for the year. And on a Monday, no less!
There were three or four 2-point bounces off 1167, even after the market entered its death throes for the day. Those waiting until the fourth or fifth test before entering (and when the repo dough was so low, no less) were the only folks who felt the pain. Still, it's a mad thing to do, letting a support get tested several times, then giving it a shot. Give it a shot and if it works, neat - if not, move on.
Major US Indices
As usual, Monday brought out the usual array of hopeful openers: the first ten minutes resulted in a 30-point advance in the Dow. After all, it was Monday - which means there has been a whole weekend for "investors" to forget what happened last week.
With memories shorter than most goldfish, an absence of price action over the weekend sends the nuffnuffs to BubbleVision (CNBC and other purveyors of pabulum) in order to get a handle on where the thing is headed. Then they line up on the buy on Monday mornings.
Poor nuffies...
Anyhow - the market made its little opening orgasm, then pulled back to let smart folks buy at better prices. After a see-saw for another couple of hours, da Boyz took advantage of thin lunch trading to try and gun some stops above the market. The S&P futures turned first, and rose in almost-uninterrupted fashion from 1168.75 to 1174.25, before stalling on a TICK extreme.
If only they'd been able to break 1175 they might actually have got some short-covering, but with so little repo dough in the coffers they never really stood a chance... the only hope was to get some nuffnuffs to buy the "first hour breakout" and then take the poor sods to the cleaners.
From early afternoon it was one-way traffic... down. Once the market got down to our calculated support (1167, remember) it bounced a bit, but after trying to get some upwards traction for half an hour it just sagged into the close of the cash market (stocks closed pretty much at their lows for the session - almost to the tick).
The DJIA lost 24.38 points (0.23%), closing out the day at 10368.61 points; the broader S&P500 lost 4.12 points (0.35%), ending the day at 1163.75.
Over at Times Square, tech was in a world of pain an order of magnitude worse than the Dow: the Nasdaq Composite slid 25.57 points (1.26%), to close at 2008.7, while larger-cap technology issues fared worse with the Nasdaq100 losing 22.98 points (1.53%), to end at 1480.66 points.
NYSE Volume was pretty solid, with 1.49 billion shares changing hands, while Nasdaq Volume was chunky with 2.14 billion shares traded.
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| DJIA | 10368.61 | -24.38 | -0.23% |
| S&P500 | 1163.75 | -4.12 | -0.35% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 2008.7 | -25.57 | -1.26% |
| Nasdaq100 | 1480.66 | -22.98 | -1.53% |
| NYSE Volume | 1.49bn | - | - |
| Nasdaq Volume | 2.14bn | - | - |
Bellwethers
My 9-stock "bellwethers" group fell by an average of 0.75%
- Cisco Systems (CSCO) -$0.26 (1.44%) to $17.75;
- Ebay (EBAY) -$3.68 (4.28%) to $82.37;
- Citigroup (C) +$0.43 (0.9%) to $48.36;
- Wal Mart (WMT) +$0.06 (0.11%) to $53.07;
- IBM (IBM) -$0.59 (0.64%) to $91.79;
- General Electric (GE) +$0.13 (0.37%) to $35.26;
- Intel (INTC) -$0.43 (1.92%) to $21.99;
- Fannie Mae (FNM) +$0.25 (0.39%) to $65.10;
- Freddie Mac (FRE) -$0.14 (0.21%) to $66.56;
Market Breadth & Internals
On the NYSE declining Issues beat out advancers by 2030 to 1318, for a single-day A/D reading of -712; Nasdaq losers exceeded gainers by 2173 to 941.
NYSE declining volume was greater than volume in advancing issues by 977.54 to 500.68 million shares; Nasdaq declining volume exceeded volume in advancing issues by 829.2 to 245.03 million shares.
57 NYSE-listed stocks rose to new 52-week highs, and 24 posted fresh 52-week lows, while on the Nasdaq there were 40 stocks that hit new 52-week highs, and 68 which fell to fresh 52-week lows
| NYSE | Nasdaq | |
| Advancers | 1318 | 941 |
| Decliners | 2030 | 2173 |
| Advancing Volume (m) | 500.68 | 245.03 |
| Declining Volume (m) | 977.54 | 829.2 |
| New Highs | 57 | 40 |
| New Lows | 24 | 68 |
Market Sentiment
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| Equity Call Volume (000) | 2912.19 | 373.13 | 14.7% |
| Equity Put Volume (000) | 2108.4 | -38.43 | -1.79% |
| CBOE Volatility Index | 14.65 | 0.29 | 2.02% |
| CBOE Nasdaq Volatility Index | 19.87 | 0.5 | 2.58% |
| Equity Put-Call Ratio | 0.72 | -0.12 | -14.37% |
| SPX-VIX Ratio | 79.44 | -1.89 | -2.33% |
Bond Market
Bonds rose at the long end, with the yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond shedding 4.2 basis points to 4.604%. The middle of the curve - 2yrs and 5yrs - fell, in preparation for the Fed's next 25 bps hike (slated for Feb 1st).
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| UST 13wk (yld) | 2.303 | -0.001 | -0.04% |
| UST 2Y (yld) | 3.18 | 0.042 | 1.34% |
| UST 5Y (yld) | 3.646 | 0.01 | 0.25% |
| UST 10Y (yld) | 4.122 | -0.02 | -0.48% |
| UST 30Y (yld) | 4.604 | -0.042 | -0.9% |
The Banks Index advanced 0.1 points (0.1%), at 100.19; within the index,
- North Fork Bancorp (NFB) +$0.43 (1.59%) to $27.55;
- Keycorp (KEY) +$0.45 (1.38%) to $32.98;
- Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) +$0.60 (1.3%) to $46.61;
- Nationall City (NCC) +$0.43 (1.2%) to $36.29; and
- PNC Financial Services Group (PNC) +$0.59 (1.12%) to $53.44.
The Broker-dealer Index added 0.53 points (0.37%), at 145.01; the ticket clippers lined up as follows -
- Legg Mason (LM) +$4.30 (6.08%) to $75.00;
- Charles Schwab (SCH) +$0.10 (0.91%) to $11.05;
- Raymond James (RJF) +$0.27 (0.91%) to $29.94;
- A G Edwards (AGE) +$0.13 (0.32%) to $41.07; and
- Bear Stearns (BSC) +$0.17 (0.17%) to $99.42.
The Philadelphia SOX (Semiconductor) index lost 6.62 points (1.7%), at 383.04
- Infineon Tech (IFX) -$0.37 (3.96%) to $8.97;
- Micron Technology (MU) -$0.35 (3.36%) to $10.06;
- ST Microelectronic (STM) -$0.56 (3.33%) to $16.26;
- Applied Materials (AMAT) -$0.42 (2.69%) to $15.17; and
- Novellus Systems (NVLS) -$0.61 (2.41%) to $24.66.
Gold & Silver Markets
Gold was unchanged at $427.30 per ounce, and traded in a narrow range.
Gold Bugs Index lost 2.02 points (0.96%), closing at 207.88
- Eldorado Gold (EGO) -$0.10 (3.52%) to $2.74;
- Kinross Gold (KGC) -$0.18 (2.54%) to $6.90;
- Harmony Gold (HMY) -$0.20 (2.23%) to $8.75;
- Gold Fields (GFI) -$0.26 (2.15%) to $11.84;
- Glamis Gold (GLG) -$0.24 (1.43%) to $16.58;
Silver rose $0.04 (0.51%) to close at $6.85 per ounce. The Gold and Silver Index (XAU) lost 0.78 points (0.82%), at 94.28 points.
- Kinross Gold (KGC) -$0.18 (2.54%) to $6.90;
- Harmony Gold (HMY) -$0.20 (2.23%) to $8.75;
- Gold Fields (GFI) -$0.26 (2.15%) to $11.84;
- Placer Dome (PDG) -$0.37 (2.02%) to $17.97;
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| Gold | 427.3 | 0 | 0% |
| Silver | 6.845 | 0.035 | 0.51% |
| PHLX Gold and Silver Index | 94.28 | -0.78 | -0.82% |
| AMEX Gold BUGS Index | 207.88 | -2.02 | -0.96% |
Oil Market
Oil was firmer, rising by $0.25 per barrel, closing at $48.90 per barrel - although during the Asian session it got as high as $49.23. The Oil and Gas Index (XOI) rose 5.95 points (0.82%), ending the day at 727.64
- Repsol Ypf (REP) +$0.37 (1.49%) to $25.25;
- ExxonMobil (XOM) +$0.69 (1.37%) to $51.13;
- ConocoPhillips (COP) +$1.17 (1.34%) to $88.47;
- Tidewater (TDW) +$0.68 (1.85%) to $37.47;
- Smith International (SII) +$1.03 (1.8%) to $58.19;
- Schlumberger (SLB) +$1.15 (1.78%) to $65.80;
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| Crude Oil Light Sweet | 48.9 | 0.25 | 0.51% |
| AMEX Oil Index | 727.64 | 5.95 | 0.82% |
| Oil Service Index | 127.19 | 0.9 | 0.71% |
Currency Markets
Despite a clear attempt at continuing their manipulation of currency and bond markets, the US and Japan can't actually get shorts to cover hard. The US and the BoJ are trying - Canute-like - to hold back a tide which will eventually see US T-bond futures below parity (i.e., US long bond rates above 6%).
The Japanese don't particularly want that to happen because it will mean massive capital losses on their large T-bond holdings; it will also blow out spreads to corporate bonds, which will also hurt Japan (a large-scale buyer of US corporates over the last couple of years). So they are quietly colluding to purchase undisclosed amounts of T-bonds. It will not end well, believe me.
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| US Dollar Index | 83.3 | -0.04 | -0.05% |
| Euro | 1.3057 | 0.0018 | 0.14% |
| Yen | 102.62 | -0.05 | -0.05% |
| Sterling | 1.881 | 0.0039 | 0.21% |
| Australian Dollar | 0.77 | 0.0009 | 0.12% |
| Swiss Franc | 1.183 | -0.0019 | -0.16% |
| Canadian Dollar | 0.8163 | -0.0016 | -0.2% |
European Markets
France's benchmark CAC-40 Index lost 5.48 points (0.14%), to 3848.71; the German DAX-30 Index lost 11.81 points (0.28%), to end the session at 4201.89 points, and in the UK, the FTSE-100 Index rose 9.2 points (0.19%), at 4812.5 points.
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| CAC-40 | 3848.71 | -5.48 | -0.14% |
| DAX-30 | 4201.89 | -11.81 | -0.28% |
| FTSE-100 | 4812.5 | 9.2 | 0.19% |
Tonight's Pivots (US Futures Market)
| Dow | S&P500 | Nasdaq | Bonds | |
| R2 | 10471 | 1177.77 | 1526.67 | 115 2/32 |
| R1 | 10428 | 1172.03 | 1508.83 | 114 29/32 |
| Pivot | 10397 | 1168.27 | 1496.67 | 114 19/32 |
| S1 | 10354 | 1162.53 | 1478.83 | 114 14/32 |
| S2 | 10323 | 1158.77 | 1466.67 | 114 4/32 |
