Stock Market Commentary for Saturday, August 13, 2005

Dell (DELL) and oil prices were blamed for the market decline on Friday, but I remain as skeptical as ever about such "reasons."  Rather, I believe that the market has been in a correction, and it is simply a continuation of that negative tone that led to a continuation of the selling.  NASDAQ fell a moderately sharp 17.65 points.

The good news is that NASDAQ bounced 12 points off its intra-day low, suggesting that maybe the point of "selling exhaustion" has finally been reached for the current correction, and that maybe people are once again in a more positive "buy on the dip" mood.

The disappointment over Cisco (CSCO) and Dell (DELL) was more of a short-term "buy the rumor and sell on the news" reaction than a reflection of long-term business fundamentals.  Business performance will be erratic over the next few years, but nonetheless will likely advance on a modest upward trend.

The economic data was mixed, but with a bit of a negative tone.

NASDAQ trading volume was very light (1.66 billion shares), and breadth was moderately negative, with 1.77 losers for each gainer.  This was not a heavy sell-off.

Click here to read the entire column.

-- Jack Krupansky