Friday’s Market Roundup

The market was weak right from the get-go today. It appears that traders were not willing to step up and bid for stocks until they hit the 1128 support level on the S&P 500 SPY. The market was able to base out from that level with buyers coming in at three separate instances with support; the final time, traders pushed the market off its lows by 10 points, but most of this can be attributed to short covering going into another potentially news filled weekend. For the session the S&P 500 ended lower by 1.88%, though Techs faired worse, losing 1.98%. Volatility spiked once again today, the CBOE Volatility Index VIX running from 26.68 yesterday to as high as 33.24 mid-day. The VIX closed at 31.40, higher by 17.69%. Fears about the Euro zone were the primary culprits behind much of today’s negativity; the intra collapse of the Euro FXE did not help matter any. The Euro/US dollar exchange rate is currently at $1.2366. It has been in free-fall for the past month. There were rumors circulating that France was in trouble and the next to experience Portugal like trading in its CDS spread. With all this negativity reigning today, one would think that Gold futures GLD would be soaring, but due to the large run it has already had, the shiny stuff sold off hard during the morning trade with weak traders taking profits. Futures rallied to just above flat later in the session, closing higher by only 80 cents. A similar trend can be seen in Silver futures SLV. Notable movers on the day’s session were: •Visa V, shares were lower by 9.88% today, closing at $77.26 after congress passed legislation that would have the Federal Reserve regulate debit/credit card fees (quite an extraordinary intrusion by this administration IMO) •TiVo TIVO, shares shed 41.58% to close at $10.16 after courts said that they were revisiting its patent suit with Dish Network DISH and EchoStar STS •Dillards DDS, which was the NYSE’s top gainer, rising 7.93% to close at $27.76, after the company reported that its Q1 earnings surged higher on the back of cost cutting and improved margins