A snippet from February 25th

February 25, 2013

Equities

Market Recap

Stocks suffered their first weekly decline of 2013 last week as concerns about central bankers maintaining extraordinary accommodation and the pace of global economic growth weighted on stocks. The S&P declined .4% last week and is up 6.27% year to date.

Stocks traded flat for the start of last week on little new news, but Wednesday afternoon sold off hard after perceived “hawkish” Fed minutes provided the excuse for the correction everyone has been looking for.

The selling pressure continued through Thursday after economic data from Europe was surprisingly disappointing, and concerns rose that the Chinese might be forced to start tightening monetary policy to help cool and overheating property market.

Despite any real, positive, news Thursday, however, the S&P 500 held the 1500 level after briefly falling below it intra-day, and that support holding led to the bounce in the market Friday. But, there was no real “catalyst” for the bounce and it was little more than just an oversold rally into the weekend (and was not a big “buy the dip” response that might make you think the decline is over).