Mid-Day Update

The market is down with financials leading the way. I've been impressed by the strength of ZMH, OSIP, OSTK and DV today. DV, a stock I recommended very recently, just spiked big on the open (which was a selling opportunity) and has come off a bit. It's still holding up very well in the face of a down market. However, now that it is up 3 days in a row, I'd look to take gains and wait for a better opportunity to get in again. ZMH has just been bid up relentlessly after gapping down off of its earnings report. The action is so strong that you can't wait on a pullback almost; any downtick is a pullback! Similar action occurred when ZMH reported last. It got hit and rallied back sharply for 3 days after the initial drop before the move stalled out. Based on today's strong action, I could definitely see this move continuing. I'd buy here. If it does not maintain its strength, cut it. OSIP has been trending up pretty strongly today. I'd buy that one on intraday pullbacks as well. Longer term, it's in an uptrend, but may correct soon. OSTK's action is good and I like the daily chart for the most part. It took a big hit but is rallying back towards its 200 sma. I'd suspect that it would find that average before turning back down again.

FIG is showing some weakness. As I mentioned before FIG was the annointed stock over the past few days as financials rallied. Nothing could keep it down! The dips were shallow and all of them were bought up. But now that financials are dipping, all of those buyers have turned into sellers and it can't seem to rally at all. I'd bet that the action continues for more than just today. There has been a ton of buyers come in and a pullback like his will put a little scare into them, so much so that they probably won't dip into the market until at least 2 days down.

Oil (as judged by the USO) still feels weak to me. It's come down a lot, but it just doesn't seem to be responding as well as it was when it was higher. Overall, I think it's just better to keep trades intraday in commodities right now because they are so volatile and the gaps in the morning can take you apart.