State of the Stock Market - 12/1/10 - "Finally"

A very strong day today on Wall Street, as stocks gapped up at the start of trading and moved higher from there, closing with very large gains.   The intraday action was suprisingly slow given the percentage gains, as the only real action took place in the first half hour of trading and right around lunchtime.   The rest of the day was basically sideways action.   Volume looked to be

I have written from a slightly bullish slant the past two days but in no way did I expect a move this strong today.   Technically, the S&P cleared the key 1200 area and looks poised to run if it wants to, with resistance still about twenty points away.   The Russell 2000 also broke key resistance and it is always bullish to see small caps lead the way higher.   As always, follow-through will be key - in a market going nowhere, the bulls have to keep this going tomorrow for today's move to mean anything.  

 S&P 500

 Russell 2000

 Charts from Telechart, Courtesy of Worden Brothers, Inc.

I remain in cash due to Scottrade's idiocy (no response yet again today - now 16 business days and still waiting) but hopefully you were able to make some money on the long side today.   I don't think it was an easy day to make it if you weren't already invested due to the boring intraday action, but it is what it is.   There were some decent movers from this weekend's video today like CVGI, SM, OII, and EZPW, but to be honest, I was kind of surprised the gains weren't bigger given the overall market action.  I don't know if that means anything or not.

We'll see where we go from here but the move today could obviously be the start of something big considering we've had about a month-long pullback and are in a typically bullish time of year.   I haven't been hitting my scans as hard this week due to my account situation, but I'll try and take a look tonight and share any setups I may see.   Good luck Thursday.