After running up on Thursday and Friday in anticipation of political progress in Italy, we were due for some profit taking.
So far it's very routine, low-volume selling and we are holding up quite well overall. It is just very slow action and breadth isn't very good. There is no major rush for the exits, but other than a few big-cap names there isn't much action.
One thing I've liked about the market recently is that we seem to have a little more natural flow to the trading. We bounce back up strongly, but we then rest like a little like we are doing today. We actually have some profit taking and consolidation rather than this v-shaped action that has occurred so often in the last couple years.
I'm bothered by the fact that there isn't more speculative action or some hot themes, but that is a result of having a market that has been so sensitive to European news. We just haven't had much of a focus on stock picking for a while.
Typically the last six weeks or so of the year are the peak time for pockets of momentum to develop. In fact, the trading around Thanksgiving often offers some of the best speculative action.
While it is very slow trading today, conditions continue to develop in a positive manner. We always have the risk of some negative news out of Europe or further domestic economic issues, but the market has consistently done a great job of ignoring big-picture negatives for a long period of time.
This is good, healthy action today and we just need to be patient and let the setups develop.
