Daily Investment Interpretations

September 2, 2009

2009-9-2:  Today, the markets lost a little. The NASDAQ Composite fell 1.82 points, (-0.09%) to end at 1,967.07, the Dow dropped 29.93 points (-0.32%) to land at 9,280.67 and the S&P 500 dropped 3.29 points (-0.33%) to end at 994.75. Oil was little-changed $68.03 a barrel, while gold added $22(!) to $979. The VIX moved up 0.25 to 25.90.
    For the third day in a row, there was heavy buying in the last few minutes, but it was only enough to stop a free-fall.
    Today, my technical advisory service went entirely into holding cash or shorting the markets. My advice: raise cash.
    Among today's news: 
    Mark Hulbert points out the fact that the markets selling off on good news is an endorsement of the dictum: "Buy on the rumor; sell on the news." Stock market again sells on the good news. However, this article, Tax man gets blame for September woes, suggests that the fact that most funds' fiscal year ends at the end of September suggests that fund managers' needs to sell lagging stocks before the end of the fiscal year may have something to do with September's reputation as the worst month for equities in the year.