The indices fell off their early lows and breadth is about even, but it is very sluggish out there today. Traders were spoiled yesterday with some surprisingly strong pockets of momentum. There are still some movers today, but overall it is the sort of slowness you'd expect in the final week of August.
From a big picture perspective what continues to be most notable is that the market is unconcerned with a more hawkish Fed. The conditions for a negative reaction to Fed Chair Janet Yellen were quite good, but the response so far is a collective shrug. Perhaps market players have simply grown numb to all the Fed chatter and don't believe they will ever stop supporting the market.
When the market is slower there can be a temptation to start anticipating a shift in the overall trend. Why not spice things up with some predictions of what is going to happen next? While that may be entertaining, it isn't the best way to make money.
In a market like this you just have to keep digging for ideas. I constantly am running scans for unusual volume and price movement and am looking at charts. That is how you find opportunity. It is tempting to just conclude that the market is dead, but there is always something out there that is moving.
The biggest movers on my screen right now are Rigel Pharmaceuticals (RIGL) , Karyopharm Therapeutics (KPTI) , Petroquest Energy (PQ) and Phibro Animal Health (PAHC) . I'll be looking for possibly entries in the last hour of trading.
