The Dow has not seen much action over the past week as traders sit on the fence, and their gains for the year
For the past week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been about as boring as watching paint dry. Trading has been slow with not much movement either way as the markets are in a bit of a lull. The Dow finished less than 0.2 percent up or down each day for the last five trading days. Today it broke out of that channel, but not by a huge margin, finishing the day up just .35 percent at 11,410.
Traders may be asleep at the wheel across Wall Street. Either that or we’ve got a supreme standoff between bulls and bears with neither certain enough to commit more of their capital when the end of year gains are looking good so far. The streak of virtually unchanged Dow closes is the longest Wall Street has seen since 1970.
The Dow is just a smidgen away from the high for the year of 11,444, which it hit towards the beginning of November. The consolidation the market seems to be in at the moment could keep it from hitting that mark before we see the close of 2010.
One strategist, Andrew Busch who works for BMO Capital Markets, said, “Markets are adrift as they continue to search for a new theme to trade. The crosscurrents of newsflow disrupts any hope for consistent profits.”
