Market Bounces on Wal-Mart Earnings

The market is getting a big bounce this morning in early trading. WMT topped consensus estimates and its stock gapped higher. But the overall strength this morning is likely due to the fact that the market finally got so oversold.

Goldman Sachs (GS) announced at the Merrill Lynch (MER) conference that it will not take an additional write-down, and that it remains net short the subprime market. That helped push the stock up +6%, and lifted the broker/dealer index.

Oil is down another $2, near $92. But the way these oil service stocks are trading, you would think oil had collapsed back into the $70s. I think two near-term opportunities to add money will be in the agriculture stocks and solar plays, which I will likely due via ETFs.

The RAG triumvirate (RIMM, AAPL, GOOG) is nicely higher. My big concern is just that this is too much, too early. You know how I prefer markets that close strong rather than open strong.

The volatility index (VIX) is falling -16% so far. The Yen is lower also, which is a big positive. So let's see if the bulls have it today, after a 4-day drubbing the likes of which hasn't been seen in five years.

long AAPL, GOOG, GS, RIMM