Thursday, June 15, 2006

Market Update

A late bounce pushed the major averages higher, but we continue to see broad weakness. For example, across the entire market of operating company stocks, we see 150 stocks making fresh 20-day highs and 2301 making new lows.

It is instructive to see which sectors have been strongest and weakest this past month. The weakest sectors have included gold stocks, mining issues, industrial equipment, farm machinery, basic materials, cement, and oil/gas drilling and services. Those include prior bull market leaders.

Interestingly, the strongest sectors over the past month have included banks, REITS, and utilities. Not exactly the sectors you'd expect to be strong if the market thought interest rates would continue to rise.