Market Tension Continues

Pre-market futures are down, following through on yesterday's fade. I posted over the weekend that I can really sense the renewed tension out in the markets. Yesterday was a prime example as the bullish gap was quietly faded all day long. Bulls are selling into rallies since last Wednesday. The only real exception was Friday afternoon and that was most likely short-covering.

Financials are front and center again with AXP trying to get greater access to the bailout package, C announcing that it will modify mortgage terms on 500k homeowners (remember when I was telling Lenders to do this last January......), and FNM and FRE jumping on the "save the mortgages rather than let them foreclose" bandwagon. I don't know what to say anymore about the Lenders. The lack of foresight, prudence, and plain old common sense at the beginning of 2008 when even a nobody like me was telling them what to do is just a mind warping experience.....

Anyhooowww.....it looks like the market will take another leg down today. Keep track of Thursday's low, because if we breach that then the Dow may take a pop down into 8,500 and perhaps lower. Like I posted over the weekend, I can sense the tension in the markets. Traders didn't get the next set of "good news" they were hoping for and so the Bulls have been feeding stock back to the market. Maybe things will settle out soon, and we could still see tightening this week, but the tension will have to calm a bit and not turn into the dry heaves. After yesterday's bearish treatment of the bullish gap, I'm right back in to nibbler mode, playing the index ETF's, and playing from one short-term support to the next. Until we get signs that the market wants to confirm a bounce, there's no point in trying to get too fancy.