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.

Given the market’s performance over the last month, we feel that investors should consider reducing the more speculative portions of their portfolio.

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.

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.

Market Surges to 2-Month High--Why?

By David Brown, Chief Market Strategist, Sabrient Systems

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?

Investors dumped equities late last week ahead of the weekend – largely due to the tenuous situation with Greece’s debt and the associated fall in the euro (and a commensurate rise in the dollar). But I also think there was a flight-to-safety ahead of the 9/11 anniversary, especially among Wall Street traders given the terror threats and heavy security in NYC.