Stock Market Commentary for Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Monday was a very slow day with very light trading volume.  There was a modest rally in early trading, but that was probably simply day traders inciting a little volatility that triggered a little short covering.  But with no significant buying after the short covering, traders and speculators reversed and tried to push the market down.  They did manage to push Nasdaq down by 7.23 points, but that's hardly even modest profit-taking.

Nasdaq actually closed almost a point above the intra-day low which was hit shortly before 10:30 a.m.  That's not the trading pattern of a market under heavy pressure.

People are waiting to see how Q1 quarterly reports shape up.  There are also a fair number of economic reports due out this week.

Nasdaq trading volume was very, very light (1.38 billion shares), and breadth was moderately strongly negative, with 1.85 losers for each gainer.  This was a zombie trading session.  Volatility tends to go up as volume goes down.

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-- Jack Krupansky