5.29.09

5.29.90

Friday’s market close was as suspicious looking as I’ve ever seen. Large buy programs hit the wire in the last 15 minutes of trading that spiked the markets up. These programs emanate mostly from the large banks and brokerage firms. On the last day of the trading month it can be helpful to show a good monthly gain in their portfolios. This is referred to as “legal manipulation “.  Come Monday, you will probably see these same shares being fed into the sell side of market. It makes their monthly, quarterly and annual reports look somewhat better. It is sometimes referred to as “window dressing” but in reality it is a form of manipulation and can be very misleading to those who are unaware of what is really going on.

 Next week has a very heavy schedule of potential market-moving economic reports coming out, including important reports related to the housing industry, jobs picture, and overall economic activity, including the ISM Mfg Index on Monday, Pending Home Sales on Tuesday, ADP Employment Report and Factory Orders on Wednesday, and culminating with ‘The Big One’ on Friday, as I always refer to the Monthly Jobs numbers for the previous month, frequently a big market mover in one direction or the other.

For now, we are content to stay 100% in cash while awaiting some good indicators we feel will be reliable and have prdictive value

Till next time

The MTA Staff