CHOPPINESS

After several days of market weakness, the bulls were inspired by overnight comments by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.  Draghi is the European equivalent to Ben Bernanke and he said that the ECB would do whatever it took to preserve the Euro.  This is much the same language that the Fed has used with regards to propping up the US economy.  The European markets reveled in the comments as most European indices were up 2% or more.  In the US, the markets opened up strongly but have since given back some of the early gains.  We will be very interested to see how the market closes today and whether or not the rally has legs into tomorrow and early next week.  The market was a tad oversold and was due for a rally of some sort. 

The markets remain in the broad trading range bound by S&P 1375 and 1325.  Though it is a 4% gap between these levels, much of the movements in between are mostly noise until either the bulls or bears make a break one way or another.  Caution is still warranted.  The GDP report tomorrow morning could provide fuel for a move either way as well as the continued earnings parade.  Facebook will post earnings after the close today but that will be more interesting than it is market moving.  Earnings have been largely mixed with Apple's recent miss spooking the technology sector.  To this point today, telecoms are a shining star with gains nearing 4% at last check.  Our low volatility portfolios continue to slowly move their way upward largely avoiding the day to day gyrations.  Until we get a break one way or another, it is not a bad place to be.  We will have more thoughts (and maybe a little more clarity) when we send out our newsletter in the next few days.