There is a positive bias to the early action as market players are hopeful that a stimulus deal will be made, although there is a high level of skepticism. They will hit the exits quickly if there are more headlines about being "far apart."
Breadth is good with around 4,500 gainers to 2,600 decliners. The FATMAAN names are green, SPACs are acting a little better, and the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) is leading.
It continues to be a market for stock-pickers rather than index timers. I'm holding quite a bit of inventory simply because the positions have not done anything wrong. The charts are good and I don't see any reason to sell unless the bearish narrative gains some traction.
There is increased concern about big business layoffs. The news is full of layoffs at firms such as Allstate (ALL) and Goldman Sachs (GS) . It isn't having any major market impact so far but will be one of the main explanations for market weakness when it does occur.
I've made a few new buys Thursday morning. I added to my stock of the week, Horizon Therapeutics (HZNP) , on news of a drug failure at a competitor. I also added to a position to Velodyne (VLDR) , which was a SPAC that just completed its merger Wednesday. The stock sold off substantially in part due to the chaos created when a ticker symbol is changed and also on locked shares being freed up for sale.
Thursday morning Baird initiated VLDR with an "outperform" and a $28 target. The analyst noted "strong engagements" with Tesla (TSLA) as well as a strong pipeline.
The market action looks nervous and I'm going to tighten up a bit. We are at the mercy of headlines about a stimulus bill.
