4.13.07

   4/13/07 UPDATE

All the major averages moved higher in what has been an easy going week. Stocks didn’t move much the first 2 days of the week, before retreating on Wednesday after the release of the last Fed meeting's minutes showed that the Fed remains preoccupied with inflation pressures. Higher oil prices also added to problem. Thursday saw a nice rebound and the market made back everything plus a little. The PPI (Producer Price Index) for March was released Friday and came in at 1%. But the Core PPI was only up 0.7% alleviating some of the inflation concerns. The news helped stocks post moderate gains on Friday.

For the week the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500 and Russell 2000 respectively gained 0.22%, 0.74% and 0.63%. All 3 indexes are above both their 50-day exponential moving average (EMA) and 200-day EMA.

We view the market as still being in an upward trend after taking a short rest for a small correction.  The week ahead will be focusing on earnings reports. There may be some surprises both to the upside as well as to the downside. And if Oil behaves, we feel there is little else to worry about in the week ahead. But as always, we will be alert.

Till next week

The MTA staff