The major US equity market averages have begun the day on a 'mixed footing' and just below very relevant technical resistance in the case of the S&P 500 in the 1,471/1,475 point area.

That after the release of considerably worse than expected international trade numbers this morning.

Also acting as a backdrop, the worse than expected Chinese consumer price inflation number's earlier this morning may have taken some of the shine off of the market.

Worth noting as well, some market commentary has been calling attention to what appears to be a certain anxiousness recently from technical analysts, with some pointing to potentially negative price patterns and others to the risk of increased volatility (and losses).

In this regard, some of those link those fears to the recently very rapid increase in 'bullishness' amongst investors - be they hedge funds or retail. In that regard, the most recent weekly AAII survey shows bullishness rising by 7.7 percentage points to stand at 46.4% for individual investors, with the rest evenly split between those who are neutral or bearish.

Looking at it from another angle, data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch shows an enormous surge in the amount of funds entering equities in the first week of the year ($19bn), at a pace not seen since 2008 and 2000. The worry is that such a flood of money could prove fickle and volatile. Commodity funds were the only ones to see an outflow.

As always, time will tell, but this is what Zak Mir, Senior Analyst, Institute of Trading and Portfolio Management, had to tell Sharecast: "This may be rather esoteric technical analysis, but if you look at the way that the S&P 500 has jumped up in January it is almost identical to the two stage jump seen at the beginning of September.

If we repeat the type of aftermath of that then the S&P will deliver a fresh leg up to the top of a 2012 price channel towards 1,500 - 1,520, but then sell off as we saw from September to November. Indeed, in September the peak occurred on the 14th, which means we could see the peak for January some time next week - you have been warned!"

Buffett goes solar

Bloomberg TV is today commenting on Warren Buffet's recent investments in the solar arena and on some of the different ETF's available.

Goldman Sachs has added Ford to its Conviction Buy list.

The latest quarterly results out of Wells Fargo have come in above forecasts.

US consumer doing well
The US trade deficit widened by an enormous 15.8 per cent last November, to hit 48.7bn dollars (Consensus: 41.3n dollars), apparently due - mainly - to a large rise in consumers' spending before the arrival of Christmas.

US import prices fell by 0.1% month-on-month (Consensus: 0.1%) in December.

Crude retreats
Front month West Texas crude futures are now down by 0.62% to the 93.22 dollar mark on the NYMEX.

10 year US Treasury yields are rising by 3 basis points to 1.91%.



S&P 500 - Risers
Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY) $13.39 +9.68%
Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) $34.54 +4.16%
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) $78.01 +3.94%
F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV) $99.18 +3.63%
Masco Corp. (MAS) $17.99 +2.98%
Forest Laboratories Inc. (FRX) $38.23 +2.49%
Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) $89.16 +2.14%
NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) $23.58 +1.90%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $46.42 +1.80%
Jabil Circuit Inc. (JBL) $19.97 +1.73%

S&P 500 - Fallers
J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (JCP) $18.00 -6.01%
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF) $36.01 -4.57%
Perrigo Company (PRGO) $106.92 -3.00%
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $13.58 -3.00%
Corning Inc. (GLW) $12.27 -2.94%
Alpha Natural Res (ANR) $9.49 -2.87%
Pepco Holdings Inc. (POM) $18.95 -2.39%
Principal Financial Group (PFG) $29.08 -1.97%
Legg Mason Inc. (LM) $26.34 -1.86%
Boeing Co. (BA) $75.67 -1.84%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
American Express Co. (AXP) $61.58 +1.30%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $111.30 +0.75%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $43.04 +0.61%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $193.98 +0.57%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $72.56 +0.51%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $50.98 +0.37%
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) $16.33 +0.28%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $21.84 +0.21%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $74.57 +0.16%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $68.43 +0.10%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Boeing Co. (BA) $75.67 -1.84%
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $11.60 -1.49%
3M Co. (MMM) $95.74 -1.19%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $36.70 -0.70%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $45.87 -0.61%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $94.58 -0.53%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $45.97 -0.51%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $69.06 -0.30%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $26.38 -0.30%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $52.96 -0.28%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) $78.01 +3.94%
F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV) $99.18 +3.63%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $46.42 +1.80%
Liberty Global Inc. Series A (LBTYA) $67.51 +1.40%
Altera Corp. (ALTR) $35.36 +1.23%
Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (MXIM) $30.00 +1.20%
Avago Technologies Ltd. (AVGO) $33.88 +1.07%
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) $55.11 +1.05%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $32.74 +0.99%
Discovery Communications Inc. Class A (DISCA) $68.00 +0.91%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Perrigo Company (PRGO) $106.92 -3.00%
Catamaran Corp (CTRX) $51.20 -2.70%
Randgold Resources Ltd. Ads (GOLD) $94.26 -2.39%
Dell Inc. (DELL) $10.97 -0.68%
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) $38.38 -0.62%
Virgin Media Inc. (VMED) $37.50 -0.58%
Dollar Tree Stores Inc. (DLTR) $37.92 -0.58%
Nuance Communications Inc. (NUAN) $23.07 -0.47%
Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) $88.11 -0.37%
Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) $18.92 -0.37%

AB

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