Market Commentary for Monday, February 21, 2005

[There are a few changes since Saturday.]

After the sharp decline on Thursday, people are simply waiting for a solid indication that the Nasdaq sell-off has subsided. And since it was both a Friday and ahead of a three-day weekend, people were not anxious to stick their necks out. The very modest 2.72-point Nasdaq decline on Friday was essentially noise. The good news was that there was no continuation of the sell-off.

There was a lot of chatter about the "surge" in the Producer Price Index (PPI), but sensible people know that there is a lot of volatility and that a jump in tobacco prices is not cause for alarm.

People were still recovering from the Greenspan double-header on Wednesday and Thursday.

Nasdaq trading volume was light (1.61 billion shares), and breadth was moderately negative, with 1.27 losers for each gainer. This was another "treading water" session.

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