Thursday, May 19, 2011

LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn!

Does anybody care about all the stuff going on in the market today, or is it all about the LinkedIn (LNKD) IPO? CNBC has a special orange box at the top left of their screen monitoring each tick in the price of the stock today.

I was shocked when I awoke this morning to see the IPO trading up to $80, up 75% from its IPO price of $45. But instead of taking a step back, and contemplating if the company is really worth 30x sales right now, investors have continued to pile in, and as of this writing, the stock has topped the $100 mark, up more than 120% from its IPO price. Congrats to all the LNKD employees today.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program. The Philly Fed index was very weak today, coming in at 3.9 for May from 18.5 in April. Talk about a falloff.

Existing home sales were also below expectations, as the housing sector is literally bumping along on life support.

The market had started off the day on high note, but has since pulled back into negative territory. Asian markets were mixed overnight, but Europe was higher this morning.

The dollar is roughly flat, but commodities are pulling back. Oil prices are down to $99, and gold is trading lower near $1486. But agricultural commodities are higher as unfavorable weather and flooding continues to delay planting in the U.S.

The 10-year yield is higher to 3.19%; and the VIX is roughly flat near 16.25.

Trading comment: The market had a nice bounce yesterday from its 50-day support, but volume was rather low. That signals there wasn't much conviction behind the buying. I continue to look for an oversold bounce in the market, of which today is the third day, and then for some continued downside probing.

The put/call ratio hit 1.15 on Tuesday, which is a bit of an extreme. So the selling pressure might have abated for the time being. Also, the AAII survey showed more bears than bulls today. So sentiment is getting in the right place to help the market put in a trading bottom, but I don't think we are there just yet. Be patient.

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