Monday Morning Musings

The market is slightly higher in early trading, after a strong finish on Friday and positive overseas action overnight.

Asian markets were higher overnight, led by a 2.5% gain in China. European markets are mixed this morning.

There haven't been any big corporate news items, nor any major economic releases. The dollar is rallying again, but most commodities are still higher on the day.

Gold prices are higher to $1365, while oil prices are lower again falling back to $85.72.

The energy sector (+1.21%) is the strongest sector so far, followed by materials (+0.88%). Utilities (-1.03%) are the weakest sector. Among industries, semis (+0.89%) are leading, while homebuilders (-1.14%) are among the biggest laggards.

The 10-year yield is lower to 3.62%; and the VIX is currently +2.5% higher to 16.08.

Trading comment: The market continues to march ahead, with little change in the action. When the bears can't knock the market lower, it appears that short-covering surfaces and helps push the market further to new highs. This looks like what happened on Friday as well. The market has been showing a patter of opening lower, but when the bears can't gain traction, the market reverses and closes on a high not. This is the 'stair-step' action that I often refer to.

The cloud computing stocks continue to build their bases, and CRM looks like it is in the best shape so far. Networking stocks are still hitting new highs daily, and semi stocks are strong as well. SNDK has come roaring back, and is now poised to breakout to new highs soon. I am focusing on tech stocks, but there are also plenty of leaders among the energy and industrial sectors as well.

long CRM, SNDK