Gut Check Time For The Nasdaq Bulls

Just some quick thoughts as we head into the end of September…

Last week was fairly interesting in that many began noticing signs of a change in character for the stock market, if not a change in trend.  The Nazz has been the leader for this rally, so the action there is worth noting.

Some quick Nasdaq stats from MarketBeat (WSJ):

Nasdaq Composite, down 41.94 points this week, or 1.97% to 2090.92.
* Biggest weekly point drop since the week ended May 15 when it fell 58.86 points.
* Biggest weekly percentage drop since the week ended July 10.
* Today (Friday) it fell 16.69 points, or 0.79%.

Stocks, especially of the tech variety, started selling off on lukewarm news last week, as evidenced by the Research In Motion (RIMM) gapdown after their earnings report last Thursday night.

If this is a sign of things to come, then this week will truly be gut check time for the Nasdaq Bulls.  This change in character would portend the necessity of actual good news going forward if the rally is to continue.

The not-as-bad-as-we-thought data probably won’t serve as fuel on the fire any longer.

Sources:

MarketBeat Data Points (WSJ)

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