Well, Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow on Saturday, so the weather forecast is positive. However, investors having their own version of Groundhog Day at Dow 14,000 and S&P500 1500 are still trying to decide whether to retreat to safety in anticipation of a severe market pullback. Weakness on Tuesday seemed like the start of a correction, but alas the bulls would have none of that. Read more about Sector Detector: Another resistance level turning into a launch pad

Given the market’s performance over the last month, we feel that investors should consider reducing the more speculative portions of their portfolio. Read more about What the Market Wants: Fly to Safety (and not on American Airlines)

In one of my recent articles based on the ISM reports, I used lagged linear regressions to derive at a group of stocks that should perform well in a variety of markets and especially well under rising ISM indexes (picking stocks based on the Read more about 17 Stock Picks Based on Michigan Inflation Expectation Index

Overall, the ISM reports brought in good but not great news; however they were overshadowed by the poor jobs report of last week. Read more about A Macro View: 9 + 17 Stocks for a Rising ISM Index

Walmart-Gate, Dutch-Gate, Netflix-Gate, Exit-Gate!

This could be the “exit gate” but probably not.  Over the weekend, the New York Times released a blockbuster story about Walmart’s (WMT) alleged massive cover-up of serious violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act involving more than $24 million dollars in bribes to accelerate store openings and bypass permit and zoning practices.  The stock was down 4.55% today, at $59.54. Read more about What the Market Wants: Walmart-Gate

After a nice pop last Friday and an aborted attempt to get it going again on Tuesday, stocks were down 3% for the week through Wednesday. Among the ten U.S. sector iShares, Energy (IYE) and Basic Materials (IYM) have led the market down this week. The “risk-off” movement has sent investors into the safety of the dollar and Treasuries at the expense of stocks and commodities. Read more about Sector Detector: As Europe disappoints, stocks look to Santa for support

Read more about Sector Detector: Stocks consolidate in hopes of Santa rally

Read more about Sector Detector: Greece holds markets hostage

Market Surges to 2-Month High--Why?

By David Brown, Chief Market Strategist, Sabrient Systems Read more about What the Market Wants: Market Surges to 2-Month High--Why?

Technology and Materials have been the major drag on the market this week, through Wednesday. Surprisingly, Financials and Energy have held up pretty well. It’s tough for the Technology sector, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq to perform when the biggest market-cap company—Apple (AAPL)—misses estimates for the first time in forever, I think. Or was it 2004? Read more about Sector Detector: Investors look to Europe for a breakout catalyst