Commento in Inglese..... a molti risulta ostico ma lo ritengo interessante...
The NASDAQ also remains an important issue.
At last night’s close, the NASDAQ Composite Index was about a third of a point below its 200-day moving average. A minor penetration of this would not be a major issue, but a clear breakdown would be cause to ramp up near-term cautiousness.
Adding to the need for watchfulness is the fact that counting today there are only three days remaining in the first quarter. Institutional window dressing likely will be a factor through Thursday as will end of the month closeouts of specially tailored market baskets and related option positions. If nothing else, these two factors likely will increase volatility.
We found a recent informal survey of portfolio managers done by our research affiliate, Credit Suisse/First Boston, to be interesting. The clearly unscientific survey narrowed down to ten points:
1) Interest rates are trending higher and will hurt equity performance
2) Post earnings announcements moving into the pre-announcement period, the risk/reward is skewed to the downside for negative surprises
3) The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index "SOX" has declined approximately 4% in comparison to an almost 9% decline in the NASDAQ 100 "NDX", leaving downside in the SOX to catch up with the NDX
4) The U.S. consumer is over leveraged and will be pressured by higher interest rates and higher crude oil
5) Crude oil is a systemic supply demand situation that will keep prices above $40 and will test $60 before $40.
6) Despite the sharp February increase in short interest, hedge funds in general are 60-80% net long and the macro hedge funds have been leading the current move down with plenty of room to add short exposure.
7) Domestic equity fund flows will continue to decelerate providing more leverage for the macro hedge funds to move the market
8) The current corporate governance issues will pass, but will add weight to near-term downside
9) Technically, the NASDAQ looks broken and needs to trade down to the 1425 level before basing, and
10) Younger analysts feel they are under pressure from portfolio managers to find good ideas amid rich valuations, poor visibility and few obvious growth stories.
What we conclude from these points suggests a negatively biased near-term view of the markets. Clearly the points raised are worthy of consideration, but if this list relatively accurately reflects sentiment, it probably argues that many of the points have lost their credibility, which to a contrarian would be a good argument for an upward adjustment in stock prices. As we have stated many times, we are not worried about the path of corporate earnings this year, which we think can support higher prices. External issues could mitigate the upside, but there is no way to determine when or if any outside event will affect stocks.
With the NASDAQ at an important level technically and the Dow and S&P 500 up only slightly from volume based support, maintaining a conservative view makes sense. The change in investment sentiment to a more bearish posture lately argues for looking the opposite direction toward the potential for some market upside. We also continue to think that focusing on solid dividend paying stocks makes sense even if rates edge higher.