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| Stocks: A Scary October? - Oct. 12, 2004 |
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Summary
Some Octobers have been particularly rough sledding for the stock market. So far (on balance), October 2004 has not been. But investors should not breath the proverbial sigh of relief quite yet.
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For October so far, my seven-measure stock-market tracking group was up an average 0.9% through yesterday's close. All seven components were up in price, in a range of 1.8% for the NASDAQ 100, to less than 0.1% for the DJIA. There is nothing too scary about that -- so far.
And to make the situation potentially more bullish, this is an expiration week -- one of the 12 times a year that Wall Street and LaSalle Street team up to do their best to screw put holders. They usually succeed!
If that were not enough, it's a Presidential election year! As Wall Street has been assuring everyone all year now, nothing bad happens to stocks in one of these.
As safe as all that may make the near-term picture appear, however, I still detect storm clouds gathering on the horizon. In an offering I plan to have out tomorrow morning, I'll have a look at the current situation, using the missive dated 10/6 as a centerpiece of the discussion ("The Mother of All 2004 Failing Stock-Market Rallies?").
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