Although neither the Fed nor the European Central Bank have delivered what the market really wants, they continue to dangle the hope of action and that is providing support. There was plenty of disappoint with ECB chief Mario Draghi, but he has kept hope alive and that is enough to prevent any aggressive selling.
The main thing I'm hearing from traders this morning is that they are sick and tired of the Central Banker Casino. Constantly trying to anticipate and react to the headlines has turned standard stock picking into a minefield. Unfortunately, this focus on macro headlines is not going to end soon. The July jobs report comes out tomorrow and that is going to set up another round of central bank speculation.
The best trading that I see is in the stocks with earnings reports. At least they are moving more on their individual merits than most everything else is. A couple I've bought this morning are First Solar (FSLR), which has big short squeeze potential, and Homeowners Choice (HCII), which is under the radar but put up some big numbers. Ellie Mae (ELLI), a recent Stock of the Week, had a great report and I'll be looking to add to that at some point.
It continues to be tricky trading, but hopefully we can start to shift back to stock picking and away from the central banker soap opera.
