It was nice to see some follow-through on yesterday’s rally. We are 12 points below a level the market hit twice before and backed away. A break though 1465 by at least a few points, say to 1470 would likely set up a nice move higher, just going by standard technical analysis. The worst case would be to get up in that neighborhood and drop decisvely below 1428.
Earnings reports were generally good today and Apple, which has an out-sized effect on the indexes was up over 2% by virtue of scheduling a product announcement meeeting, widely expected to be the unveiling of an iPad mini.
Gold is lagging here and natgas is seeing some profit-taking after some sizeable yo-yo action.
Apparently, high frequency traders have target natural gas as a market they can manipulate some. I have absoutely no patience for that and really think regulators should put a stop to some of the tactics high-frequency traders are using. To me, they are adding unnatural volatility and are a detriment to markets. I would actually love to see high-frequency trading stopped altogether. It adds nothing but volatility and is accounting for a huge portion of the volume in recent years.