Markets Bouncing Heading Into Final Hour

The financials stocks caught a bid earlier, and that likely sparked some short-covering ahead of the weekend. I have to tell you, if I had been short a lot of these stocks, I would be happy as all get out to take some profits ahead of the weekend and enjoy my gains.

Citi (C) is up +3.7%, and Goldman (GS) is up +3.3% right now. And the mortgage insurers are rallying big off their depressed levels. This has helped the S&P 500 climb back almost to positive territory. Let's see how the final hour goes.

As far as sentiment, the volatility index (VXN) for the Nasdaq rose another +5% today to 33, its highest level since August. The CBOE put/call is high at 1.08, and the ISEE is below average at 121. The markets are also now oversold, and due for a bounce.

Here are some stocks that are making strong moves on rising volume today:

• PCLN, TEO, EGN, PCR, COGN, MBT, MRK, CROX, FLO, ATW

long GS, CROX