Stock Market Commentary for Thursday, April 28, 2005

Traders and short-term speculators made a serious effort to break the back of the market in early trading on Wednesday, pushing Nasdaq down over 14 points, but they pushed too hard too quickly, reaching the point of "selling exhaustion" shortly after 10:00 a.m., and the market promptly bounced back up in their faces, with Nasdaq closing with a modest gain of 2.99 points.  This is very typical of the market behavior when most trading is "technical" in nature rather than based on real demand by true investors.

Thursday was a serious attempt by traders and speculators to "test" the recent intra-day low set last Monday.  What this "test" showed was that there is not enough real selling to back up these artificial attempts to manipulate the market.

The economic data was mixed, which is about par for the course.  No really new news here.  We're still in the middle of a "zigzag" recovery.  The disappointing durable goods report was simply an example of the monthly volatility, not evidence of a downwards trend.

Nasdaq trading volume was moderate (1.83 billion shares), and breadth was moderately negative, with 1.24 losers for each gainer.

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-- Jack Krupansky