I wrote yesterday that even though the Fed news was being sold, it was too dangerous to short this market. The action this morning is a good example of why this is the case. The market has underlying support as market players fear being left behind if there's a spike on a fiscal-cliff deal. They aren't rushing in to load up, but they are slowly accumulating and are quick to buy weakness. Apple (AAPL), for example, is bouncing back after a slow start.
What is most notable about the action is that there is speculative trading of small-cap "junk" biotechnology names like Oncolytics Biotech (ONCY), Compugen (CGEN) and Telik (TELK). Higher-quality biotechs like Celsion (CLSN), Synta Pharmaceuticals (SNTA) and Infinity Pharmaceuticals (INFI) are benefiting, and you can see that traders are looking for more names in the group.
Other than biotechnology, there are very few themes. A few big-cap names like Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) are active, but if you are looking for quality leadership, you will not find much.
I continue to have difficulty putting cash to work, so I'm mainly trading some of the speculative junk very quickly. I just don't see much that I want to carry, although that is going to be painful if there's a sudden spike higher on a fiscal-cliff deal.
It is irritating that a market meant for very short-term trading is offering so little for those who want to be aggressive, but all we can do is keep on digging.
