Stocks and Volume End Mixed as Consumer Confidence Dips

A positive Case-Shiller housing report was over-shadowed by a disappointing drop in consumer confidence. Volume ended mixed on the day, but did not trigger any distribution. The market appears to be waiting word from the Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke on Friday. We did see support coming into the market just after the consumer confidence debacle, but we didn’t see the market follow-through on the buying. The final hour did see a push, but was quickly met with sellers. Summer trading continues and it will conclude with Bernanke’s presentation Friday.

Tomorrow we’ll get another read on GDP and the market is expecting the economy grew at a 1.7% pace. My best guess is GDP figure comes in line with estimates and it won’t really matter to the market. Bernanke’s speech at this point is probably overshadowing any economic release including GDP. In the end it boils down to price and we’ll keep our attention to what matters most.

It is a shame the United States can’t generate growth beyond 1.7%. We are a double digit trillion dollar economy and growing at a solid 4 or 5% clip would be difficult. The law of large numbers comes into play here, but it would be nice to get more growth out of this country. Remember Iceland and Estonia? Iceland didn’t bailout its banks, it prosecuted its bankers. Estonia cut spending and took its medicine, but is growing at a great clip. Perhaps we should take some notes on what works and implement that.

There isn’t much else going on in this market until the big boys come back after Labor Day. NTE running again today and we’ll take a few more profits on this bad boy. A few other stocks continue to move higher, but we aren’t seeing any explosive moves. They will come back and we’ll be ready. The question is are you ready?