4:23 PM, Mar 12, 2010 --

• NYSE up 9.6 (0.1%) to 7,362.83.
• DJIA up 12 (0.1%) to 10,625.
• S&P 500 down 0.3 (0.02%) to 1,150.
• Nasdaq down 0.8 (0.03%) to 2,368.

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

I am noticing some very strange things happening, and I simply have to think the algorithms don't care about individual stocks that much anymore and are simply making sector bets. If you've been following the markets closely, you will know the financial sector has been on fire of late. (Click to enlarge)

In a world where 40-60% of volume each day are just computers rapid fire churning, and making sector allocations based on whatever the PhDs have programmed, it seems we have reached a point where individual news has become somewhat irrelevent. Two examples using the financial sector:

There’s a couple of topics I’d like to briefly cover today. The first hails from the “I told ‘ya so” department and the second tries to answer the “Now what?” question.

1. A SKIL-ful illustration of misplaced hope
And yet another example of “How to lose money in the market” (see 2/19/10 & 3/9/10 blogs), takeover candidate SkillSoft (SKIL) yesterday dropped 5% because no higher bidder stepped up during it’s “Go Shop” period despite the fact that it was presented to 45 potential acquirers (click on chart to enlarge). Now it appears that the original deal with private equity will proceed at the previously offered bid of $10.80 per share.