Riding a wave of positive corporate announcements -- among them, CISCO (Nasdaq: CSCO); The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX); Coca Cola Bottling (Nasdaq: COKE); and Dynergy (NYSE: DYN) -- and a number of positive economic releases, the market bullied its way through resistance to make net gains every day last week for the S&P 500. The result was a 3.2% gain for the S&P and consistent strong market action through all cap/styles and all sectors.

Volatility returned to the marketplace with a vengeance last week, and we should be prepared for more of the same this week. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday the market moved 2% or more – in opposite directions each day.  The S&P 500 was down 2% on Wednesday, up more than 2% on Thursday, and down again on Friday nearly 3%.

Last week, the market was very selective, with only Large-cap Growth in positive territory -- think Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Amazon (Nasdaq:  AMZN), and American Express (NYSE: AXP). All other cap/styles were negative -- and the smaller you were, the more you lost. In fact, this entire month the market has beat up on small-caps with its "the smaller you are, the more you lose" bias.

by David Brown, Chief Market Strategist

David Brown

by David Brown, Chief Market Strategist

David Brown

by David Brown, Chief  Market Strategist

David Brown

The market doesn't seem to know which way it wants to go. Last week was literally the mirror image of the previous week. The best style/cap two weeks ago was Small-cap Value; last week it was the worst (-3.4%). The worst style/cap two weeks ago was Large-cap Growth; this week it was the best (-1.9%).

By David Brown, Chief Market Strategist, Sabrient Systems, LLC

David Brown

(Monday, September 21, 2009, 2:45 p.m. PST )  While I am not a psychiatrist, I am tempted to diagnose our current market as borderline schizophrenic because it has shown a tendency to go up on bad news but also often go down on good news.

By David Brown, Chief Market Strategist, Sabrient Systems, LLC

David Brown

by David Brown, Chief Market Strategist, Sabrient Systems

David Brown

The market spent the month of August in a fog of mixed and contradictory economic results, often moving up on negative news and down on positive news.  Last week was no exception, and it's doubtful whether we'll get any improved visibility this week, either.