First Day of 2010

by Larry Levin

Although today was the first trading day of 2010 it felt a lot like the last few weeks of 2009. I was "hoping" for "change" but nothing happened: it was the same old market as the previous one. Sound familiar? Hey, a guy can hope can't he?

So like last year, a lot of today's gains were due to the pre-market traders goosing the futures before the open; however, that led to some early short-covering. The USD (US dollar) was also hammered this morning, thus goosing gains even more. The market was able to drift ever higher on pathetic...no, PUTRID...volume with upgrades from the one-way street signs known as "unbiased" analysts. Today's NYSE volume barely cracked 1-billion shares.

The early data was a mixed bag. The ISM manufacturing data was surprisingly good. There are no caveats here; it was quite good through and through. Economists had guessed the data would come in at a 54.8 reading but it was actually 55.9. Moreover, the report showed new orders jumped more than 5 points to 65.5, which is on top of prior monthly gains. This is exactly where strength in the report should be, pointing as it does to rising activity through the manufacturing sector in the months ahead.

Finally, a non-BS data point. Now this is the sort of thing I can get behind.

However, the other data point gave us the "mixed bag" I mentioned above and says "Not so fast. Don't break out the bubbly yet." This other report was the construction spending data and it was quite bad. The consensus number was to see a -0.5% reading but it was -0.6%. The surprising part was a revision to the prior month's data from 0.0% to -0.5%.

This two month consecutive drop in construction spending will shave growth OFF of the GDP in the 4thQ...but who really cares when Bernanke is handing out free money. Well, not to YOU but the banks sure are getting it and that's all that matters.

Speaking of Bernanke, he had the guts to actually make a speech over the weekend where he claimed the central bank had...get this...NOTHING to do with the financial and housing bubbles of the past. I could go nuts now showing you what an idiot this clown truly is by using his own statements, but I've done that many times before.

Here it is in a nutshell: If Bernanke believes this speech, he is incompetent or a lapdog for Wall Street - or both. He needs to be removed from the Fed...NOW!



Previous Day's Trading Room Results:

Trade Date: 1/4/10

E-Mini S&P Trades*
(before fees and commissions):


1) Engf sell @ 9:23am at 1124.50 = -1.00 (1 lot)

2) Algorithm positions (0)

3) "Reading the Tape" positions (5) ...combined Secret's, Algo, & "Reading the Tape" total...+0.00



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