Stock Market Commentary for Friday, April 15, 2005

Despite the big disappointment of yet another sharp Nasdaq decline on Thursday (27.66 points), trading remains almost strictly technical in nature.  Traders chattering about economics are doing just that: chattering to incite volatility, not trying to do an objective evaluation of the economic outlook over the coming year.  As I half-expected, there was a lot of technical temptation to push Nasdaq below it's intra-day low of two weeks ago.  Once such a key "technical" support fails, there is always a lot of piling on to see how far they can push the market down.  This is all artificial market manipulation, having nothing to do with any true economic or business fundamentals.  It doesn't tell you anything about where the market is headed next, but it is a fact of life that we have to live with.

Nasdaq trading volume was not quite heavy (1.95 billion shares), and breadth was very strongly negative, with 2.49 losers for each gainer.  Despite the big point decline, this was not quite a heavy sell-off.

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-- Jack Krupansky