Market Wrap

Very strong showing for the market. Despite gapping down at the open, and market recovered as the day wore on and worked its way back into the green by the close. That is a strong reversal, given the fact that the market had every reason to sell-off today. One of my colleagues is fond of saying, "When the market does the opposite of what it is supposed to do, it is speaking."

Of course, we'll have to watch the price action over the next few days to see if that's right. The SPX broke below it's 50-day average this morning, and the 1188 level I highlighted yesterday, but then closed near it's high for the day which was back above that 50-day line.

There were some very strong retail sales reports this morning. Some of the standouts were:

• ANF +38.0%
• AEOS +28.0%
• BEBE +31.4%
• CHS +18.8%
• GYMB +17.0%
• KSS +14.4%

Also, the Monster Employment Index rose for the sixth month in a row, to a new high at 136. The correlation between this index and the monthly jobs report from the BLS is somewhat mixed, so we'll have to see if tomorrow's numbers are as strong. Consensus estimates are for +200,000 jobs.

long KSS