Stock Market Commentary for Tuesday, August 2, 2005

Some anxiety over the death of Saudi King Fahd weighed on the market on Monday, despite a decent ISM Manufacturing report.  NASDAQ continued its slow upwards march, rising a moderate 10.55 points, not setting a new closing high, but setting a new intra-day peak of 2,201.87 for the year and for the advance off the October 2002 low.

The economic data was mixed, as usual.  No new news there.

NASDAQ trading volume was very light (1.51 billion shares), and breadth was modestly positive, with 1.24 gainers for each loser.  Don't pay too much attention to market movement on a day with such low volume.  The weakness of breadth was a little disappointing, and may signal a rotation from smaller-cap stocks to larger-cap stocks.

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-- Jack Krupansky