Market Bounces but Holds Its Breath

The economic news pre-market is mostly sour, and yet stock market futures are up anyway. Durable Orders missed expectations, and Weekly Jobless Claims were worse than expected. Bond Manager Bill Gross said he expects the unemployment rate to climb to 7% (which is not good, but obviously much better than the rest of the world).

NKE beat earnings expectations, and GE lowered earnings guidance but had its AAA rating re-affirmed by Standard & Poors. The corporate news is so so this morning, but not too bad.

It looks like the market wants to at least try for a technical bounce after the two heavy days of selling (following two huge days of buying.....) and the Deliberation Day yesterday. The market is at somewhat of a short term tipping point today. If it can push up, the the Bulls may win a short term 1-3 day type of technical bounce. If the Bears push the market down substantially below yesterday's lows then they may win a round trip back to last week's lows. We shall see who wins.....

7:00 pm MT: Market Wrap: The market bounced today as traders anticipate the government bailout is getting closer to being passed. I was looking at today as a short term tipping point, and after yesterday's Deliberation pattern I was looking for it to tip up, which it did.

I nibbled a few calls on SPY and DIA and sold the rest of my TRA puts for a profit. I am focused on a few Financial stocks and the Energy patch.

This evening WM was officially acquired by JPM, well.....at least its deposits were acquired. WM is the latest Financial company to refuse a better offer ($4.00 per share in March by JPM) only to see their pride humbled by a total implosion of the company.

Also, RIMM guided down after earnings and is down very sharply after-hours.

So we will see some major cross-currents tomorrow. RIMM will drag down Wireless and the Naz while the bailout and possibly the buyout of WM may bolster Financials and the SPX. In addition, if the bailout goes through, the Dollar will probably drop, which will probably push up oil, Energy, Commodity, and Gold stocks, which will probably push down Retail stocks. Like I said, we will see some major cross-currents tomorrow.....

Here is an interesting Bullish list for tomorrow and perhaps Monday - Tuesday:

Financials: JPM, ACE, EEM, KBE, BBT

Coal: MEE, ANR

Gold: GG, AEM, ABX

Energy: HES, XTO, DVN, ECA, BHI, NOV, COP, SII, APA, (APC, CVX, XOM, PXD)

Also Note: PEP, WY, RYL, TOL