Stock Market Update -Mar 7th

We saw nice gains in the market last week, with a big rally on Friday after the payroll report was released. The unemployment rate stayed at 9.7 percent. Everyone was 'short' going in to this report! They got hammered once again, especially in the small caps (see charts below). Sometimes it pays to avoid the herd.


OSIP rocketed up about $20 on a buyout offer.
AAPL also rocketed up to a new all-time high.

Some stocks hitting ALL TIME HIGHS this week:
AAPL, BIDU, DTV, DNDN, ESRX, EW, ISRG, MJN, MIL, TEVA, DLTR, ROST

ETFs hitting new all-time lows. Be careful with holding on to leveraged ETFs!
FAZ, DRV, QID, SDS, SRS, TZA

Indexes getting back up to the January high

New unemployment claims were down, coming in at 469,000.
And four more banks were shutdown by the FDIC this week! (list).

Next week: This might be a quiet week, with a few earnings reports, and some more economic reports.

Market commentary: March marks the anniversary of the market bottom last year, and although we have had a massive 70% rally, we are only 50% of the way back up to the June 2007 highs! We are two weeks away from options expiration, and with many traders short the market, I expect more upside as they run for cover. I also expect the S&P and the DOW to catch up to the Russell 2000 (small caps) and take out the January highs (see index charts above).

Commodities:
Oil prices were up, closing the week around $81.50 per barrel.
Natural Gas continues to drop, closing around $4.60
Gold prices were mostly up, closing around $1135.
The US Dollar index was mostly unchanged, closing around 80.4.
30 year Bond prices dropped on Friday as I thought it would, to close just over $118.

News:
Nasdaq at 18-month high
Apple approaches $200 billion
Week Ahead: A Year From Lows, Market Still Doubts Rally
CBO: $10 trillion jump in debt under Obama budget
China's Zhou: Yuan Policy Could Change
Is there anyplace to put your cash?
8 reasons Wall Street loses another 20% in this decade