Weekly unemployment claims came in a little higher than expected, and that is giving the market a boost in the hope that employment-related inflation may start to cool. This is the big issue confronting the Fed and makes the February jobs news to be reported Friday morning particularly important.
There has been an interesting shift in market behavior recently. There are higher levels of intraday volatility and more big moves.
For years there have been data that showed that almost all of the positive market performance occurred overnight. That has changed lately, and now much of the movement occurs intraday. This is partially due to zero-day options, which are seeing a tremendous increase in volume, but it is also due in part to a focus on economic news that is often released during market hours.
Many short-term traders do not care about long-term fundamentals and economics. They are focused on very short-term price movement. The bears are often confused by this willingness to chase strength in a market that has so many obvious longer-term obstacles, but if your holding period is intraday, then that just isn't very important.
Short-term traders are always more focused on technical setups and price action than longer-term investors. This has produced a situation where the bulls are made up primarily of very short-term players, while the bears are comprised of longer-term investors focused on making economic predictions.
It is an interesting dynamic, and it is important to keep it in mind as you trade. The long-term bearish arguments may be compelling, but they actually help to create a favorable short-term movement for bulls.
I've added to a position in CECO Environmental (CECO) , which dropped sharply on Monday following a very good earnings report. A lot of stocks are seeing a "sell the news" reaction to good news, and that is creating some opportunities.
