Selling Into Strength
“Although the overall market is up, I’m seeing a balance of buyers and sellers. There are people taking advantage of the ‘up’ market to do some profit taking.”
– Joe Ranieri (subscription required), Co-Head of Trading, Canaccord Adams
The Dow was up more than 100 points at the start of the day. Currently (1:45pm EST), it’s down about 40 points (chart).
What we are seeing, I believe, is profit taking i.e. selling into the strength. A lot of people are using this up market, yesterday and today, as an opportunity to get out of stocks at reasonable prices.
Like I said yesterday, “we’re not out of the woods yet” and markets are still jittery. After dipping below 20 this morning, the VIX is back up near 22.
I would not be at all surprised to see the selling accelerate in the last hour, especially as it’s the last day of the month.