Update #4/ Week of August 3, 2009

Good Morning and Happy Thursday! The stock market is stubbornly holding onto its gains of the past month, but one thing is obvious, the month long rally appears to be over. Try as it may, the bullish equity traders just aren’t able to forge ahead any further. We’ve seen choppiness now for the last several trading sessions, and every run up is met with resistance. Unfortunately, credit markets aren’t able to benefit from the stalled rally. Rates are actually slightly worse this morning from yesterday’s start. We improved yesterday afternoon, but have given back all the gains and then some.

The stock market is basically hovering around the flat line today due to a lack of market-moving economic data. Initial jobless claims filed for the week ending Aug 1 came in at 550K, better than the 580K anticipated. This might have created a positive move in the markets, but the continuing claims actually rose to 6.31 million, slightly higher than the 6.25 million expected, and also higher than the 6.24 million from last week. All this comes a day ahead of tomorrow’s unemployment report, which could be a real market mover.

I’ll be in the office all day today. Call me here or better yet email me and I’ll get back to you ASAP. Have a terrific Thursday!