Summer Vacation On Wall Street

Ultimately, it was another inconsequential day…..  Under more normal circumstances, I’d be spending this week on the golf course, but I’m still in catch up mode.

– Charles Kirk, “Another Inconsequential Day”, The Kirk Report, Wedneday August 27, 4:44pm EST

In short, nothing much to report today.  Those who can be on vacation, simply are on vacation.

– Charles Kirk, “Sideline Sitting”, The Kirk Report, Tuesday August 26, 6:43pm EST

Volume has been unimpressive at best.  I saw some stocks trade at less than half of the average daily volume this week.  It’s neither good nor bad, but rather just what often happens this time of year.

Late-summer vacations and the end of earnings season are both big reasons why many traders are sitting out…..

This is a quiet market environment and nothing else.  My advice is let events unravel and see what trends develop after Labor Day.

– Charles Rotblut, “Late-Summer Trading”, Zacks, Friday August 22

All five trading days last week ranked among the ten lowest volume days for the NYSE in 2008.  Thursday and Friday were the two lowest days, with Friday taking top honors for the slowest trading day of the year.  With even more days off expected on Wall Street this week leading up to the Labor Day holiday, more 2008 low-volume records should be broken.

– BeSpoke Investment Group, “Dog Days Are Here”, Monday August 25

Some of you might have noticed that I haven’t been posting much the last two weeks.  It isn’t because I’m on vacation or anything.  I just haven’t been able to think of much any consequence to write about because there isn’t much going on.

Volume on the NYSE has been under 1 billion shares a day for each of the last 5 days (NYSE Volume+ 3 Month Chart) – including only 820.6 million shares trading hands today. 

For comparison purposes, volume was in the high 1 billion to 2 billion range when we were forming the July and March lows and well over 2 billion on many days during the January selloff (NYSE Volume+ YTD Chart).

Alot of people are making a big deal about the lows of July 15th holding up nicely and being THE bottom (S&P 3 Month Chart) – but they’re wrong.  It’s just another bear market rally that alreadys appears to be out of steam:

Bear-market rallies always seem attractive when occurring, but typically they end very abruptly and typically, they knock out all the gains you have.

– Keith Springer, Capital Financial Advisory Services, Sacramento CA