The indexes finished the day with minor gains, but it continues to be a market that is rewarding astute stock picking.
Breadth was 4,800 gainers to around 2,450 decliners but, more significantly, over 800 stocks were hitting new 12-month highs. That level of new highs is a clear indication that market players are still working hard to put money to work and are willing to chase strength to do so.
The FATMAAN names didn't do much, but there was strong interest in some of the high-flying software and cloud names. Also, bitcoin speculation remained strong, and there was interest in special purpose acquisition companies and a variety of technology names. My list of stocks that were up more than 10% was very long as the fear of missing out doesn't seem to soften.
The indexes look a little extended here, but so far there hasn't been any sort of catalyst to trigger profit-taking. When there is a dip, the dip buyers can hardly wait to jump in. There is still optimism about a fiscal stimulus deal and concerns about Covid in the near term are still not having an impact. Late in the day Pfizer (PFE) had news that it may have some vaccine supply issues and there were reports that California may issue stay-at-home orders due to concerns about overcrowding in intensive care units, but the market's reaction to this negative news remains tepid.
Market players continue to hunt high and low for individual stocks to buy and nothing seems to be slowing them down.
Have a good evening. I'll see you tomorrow.