The major market averages rose Monday on lower volume compared to both Friday's big-volume quadruple-witching options expiration day which contained exaggerated volume as well as the day prior, last Thursday, which was a distribution day. The weak rally is characteristic of other weak rallies witnessed this year, and may be due in part to the impending Christmas holiday. It does not mean the rally will fail as quantitative easing is far more powerful than any correction witnessed this year which has been contained to generally within 5-6% off the peak before the market finds its footing and rallies higher.
Apple finally struck an iPhone deal with China Mobile, sending the stock up on the day but not with enough volume for a pocket pivot. The fact remains that AAPL no longer has the brilliant killer apps in its pipeline that drove its prior price run and so is running on fumes left over from its prior killer app technologies. Buyer beware.
3-D printer Exone Company (XONE) joined the other big 3-D printer names, Stratasys (SSYS) and 3-D Systems (DDD), yesterday with a strong price move that qualified as a pocket pivot. XONE is attempting to round out its base as it moves up through its 50-day moving average. Earnings and sales are still anemic but projections are highly robust and the stock stands a chance of breakout of its current consolidation.
Today's short trading day will see the closing bell ring at 10 a.m. Pacific time and 1:00 p.m. Eastern, and so investors probably shouldn't expect to much in the way of decisive moves today, although we note that pre-open Tesla Motors (TSLA) is pushing towards the 150 price level on new that the NHTSA has re-affirmed TSLA's Model S five-star safety rating in all categories for model year 2014.