In my pre market report I discussed that the futures were up with no solid reason to substantiate the advance. And we expected to see the rally fade, and fade it did. The markets inability to hold on to gains reinforces the bear market mentally that is so prevalent in the market. In bear markets rallies are sold, in other words "sell on strength".

One of the reasons we saw the gap open higher this morning was on the thought that Wal-Marts earnings were perhaps showing that the consumer still had a pulse and was on the road to recovery (as how the media reported it). As I pointed out in my pre market report Wal-Marts earnings were nothing great, only in line with their already lowered forecast and they went as far as to provide forward guidance on the lower end of the scale of their previous guidance. Absolutely nothing to get excited about, however the media jumped all over it. The Associated Press reported:

Wal-Mart Expects More Profitable Year After Low-Price Focus Boosts 4th-Qtr Earnings

Defying the gloom that many retailers are feeling, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expects a more profitable year selling to penny-pinching shoppers after its renewed focus on low prices paid off over the holidays with a 4 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit.

 

But when you dig into the numbers from this morning there was nothing to get excited about. Wal-Mart, just like so many other retailers that have been lowering their forward earnings guidance. So when Wal-Mart came in with earnings ‘in line’ people got excited over nothing more than a company confirming that earnings were just as bad as the company had predicted when they issued guidance last quarter. The media seems to have a very short memory. After the market opened the retail sector (RTH) gapped up at the same time the media was reporting that "all the bad news is now baked into the stocks". "Baked in", a common term you hear on Wall Street which simply means that the price of a stock is already priced at a worst case scenario and not even bad news can keep it down any longer. Well I guess someone took the pie out of the oven too soon because the retail stocks still went lower, even when everyone was saying it was done. The retail sector sold off throughout the day and ended down 1.2%. So much for all the bad news being baked in.. Whenever you hear someone tell you that you need to buy a stock because "the bad news is already baked into the price" you should run, and run fast in the other direction.

The chart below is an intra-day chart of the Retail Holders Index (RTH) for today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Financial stocks are another sector that has been touted as having all the bad news baked into the prices now. But, just like the retail sector today the financial sector also sold off. I have become very displeased with CNBC for their blatant ‘pumping’ of stocks by bringing on people who have positions in various stocks and/or sectors and they say how great a bargain they are now. Then to only see them continue lower in the following weeks. Except for a few smart and intelligent reporters on CNBC they have turned into the TV version of the Yahoo message boards. CNBC… shame on you!

As I said this morning we are holding our short position on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and that has not changed. That trade has worked well and we are going to keep it until the price stops us out (at break even) or we reach the lows reached back in the middle of last month. If we reach those lows on the Dow we are likely to see a battle of greed and fear and thus we will form some support at that region which would be a great time for us to take our profits from the trade. At that time we will determine our next play on the market. But even if the Dow reaches those previous lows again and it bounces we will still be in a bear market. As a matter of fact until further notice… we are still in a bear market.

Oil hit $100 dollars again. It really does not matter if oil is at $85, $90, or if it surges past $100. What matters is the average cost of oil, and the average has been rising over the past year and it is the average that plays an impact on our gasoline costs and heating bills. The longer the average oil price remains high the greater the impact will be on inflationary data. And inflation is what will continue to weaken the US economy even further.

Tomorrow we will get the Consumer Price Index and the FOMC minutes from their last meeting on January 29-30. Both of these events will likely have some wild impacts on the market tomorrow. Everybody is back to talking about more rate cuts from the Feds, the increasing inflation data (which does not even include the recent rise in oil) is going to impact the Feds even further.

In the after hours trading on Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) I saw a lot of selling on the strength. If we see HPQ pull back after their good earnings report we will know that nothing matters at all, good or bad earnings people just want to cash out. We will watch to see how they trade tomorrow.