Monday Morning Musings

The market has opened under fairly heavy selling pressure this morning. I think this is more profit taking, but I prefer to see the weakness show up early, as opposed to at the end of the trading session. This sets up the possibility that the markets strengthens into the close.

Bearish sentiment rose again last week, with the CBOE put/call closing above 1.0 on Friday. Additionally, the bull/bear spread on AAII narrowed to dead even (42% bulls, 42% bears). That is a big jump in the number of bears.

Oil is still trading below $60, and the 10-year yield is still low at 4.58%. Early reports of retail sales over the holiday weekend showed strong trends. A couple of days of correction would likely just serve to lessen the overbought condition of the market.

In other news and notes:

• GOOG mentioned as overvalued in Barron's
• WMT reports SSS fell -0.1% in November
• MGM profiled in IBD
• AAPL tgt upped to $110 at ThinkEquity
• SIRF chips selected by Bushnell Outdoor Products
• JCG drops after CIBC downgrade
• Abby Joseph Cohen sees SPX 1460 by Sep 2007
• LVS gaps higher after Jeffries raises target price ($124)
• Radioactive traces found in London

long AAPL, GOOG, SIRF