Lower across the board...

Market opened lower, stayed lower and closed towards the lows of the day. When everything was set and done the Dow closed minus 137 points or - 1.71 points.

Even though this might not seem to have been an interesting day it actually was. Goldman came in with very good earnings (at least on the surface) but the market did not like it and took the stock down.

Obama made a major policy speech on the economy (this is how team Obama described it beforehand) and the market embarked on another leg down once his speech was over. During the past couple of weeks any speech by Obama was cheered by the market and led to substantial advances. Not this time though.

This is the first time a the last coupe of weeks that positive news was disregarded and the market worked its way lower. It is to early to tell but perhaps the bull run which started May 9 has, at least temporarily, come to an end.

Intel is scheduled to announce earnings after the close and this will undoubtedly guide the tech sector tomorrow morning. (check out tomorrows earnings announcements here http://www.earnings.com/highlight.asp?date=20090415&client=cb )

I still feel that trends are up and we will see another push through the highs from last week. However, the markets inability to follow through on Friday's stellar gains thus far makes for a cautionary tale.

Right now I would describe today's decline as earnings jitters. I am still optimistic and expect the Dow to hit at least the 8200 to 8250 level. A drop below 7750 would change this view and I then would expect the Dow to hit 7450 first and 7150 as a secondary target.

Until tomorrow

Steve Benger