Reply #36: 12:27 and today's term is "range-bound" (side of blather)

[Maeve]

12:00PM: Today's spiritless trade has seen the market vacillate in a relatively tight trading range, with the blue-chip averages posting small gains and the Nasdaq showing mild losses... This morning's generally better than expected earnings reports have failed to boost the market's momentum in a meaningful fashion, just like the stronger than expected Existing Home Sales report for December (at 6.47 mln vs. consensus of 6.10 mln) has not amounted to a winning housing sector...
Just like last week, while earnings growth is strong and the economy is accelerating, the market has been undermined by valuations concerns... Briefing.com, for its part, agrees that valuation has reached loftier levels, yet we think current multiples are justified, keeping in mind the historically low interest rates... Accordingly, as explained in The Big Picture column, 2004 is expected to be another winning year for stocks, although not as strong as 2003...
http://finance.yahoo.com/mo

Dow 10,598.51 +30.22 (+0.29%)
Nasdaq 2,122.62 -1.25 (-0.06%)
S&P 500 1,143.41 +1.86 (+0.16%)
10-Yr Bond 4.105% +0.039