US stock futures point to a higher open Thursday after Germany’s lower house of parliament voted to approve enhanced powers for the European Financial Stability- the Euro Zone’s Bailout fund. Beyond that the news slate is pretty empty on the Jewish New Year celebration, Rosh Hashanah. Volume should be fairly light given the holiday, and some window dressing (or repair) could be possible after yesterday’s late-day sell-off.
While support for Greece and the rest of the troubled Eurozone economies seems more likely, concerns still exist about the economy stateside, too. Yesterday Fed Chairmain Ben Bernanke called the unemployment rate a “national crisis” that demands attention from all levels. Fed monetary policy is not a panacea, he said, and measures need to be taken to help workers gain skills and find work. He cited better housing policies as a major opportunity to reverse course.
Technically, the market continues to make lower highs, which is a technically bearish signal. When the market comes under any pressure the speed of the sell-offs is troubling for investors, and it will take more support for a larger EFSF to spark a bigger rally. When you look technically across the board at individual stocks, there is a lot of damage to the charts. Even a market leader like Apple (AAPL) is starting have some tough sledding as Amazon.com (AMZN) undercuts the price of the iPad with its new Kindle Fire tablet (that you aren’t supposed to call a Tablet, according to Amazon.com’s CEO Jeff Bezos). Even though we can catch bounces and short strength, we need to be on our toes.
There will be a time when this range resolves. Typically major bottoms are put in in the month of October, but it usually comes after one more big flush! Real bottoms don’t happen quietly. The question is? Will the situation in Europe deteriorate enough for that flush to happen. We will wait for the price action to tell us if and when a big break will come.
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