The stock market ended its very impressive performance this week with an attempt at profit taking, but the technology bulls would have none of it. Interestingly, some of the tech stocks that have taken a beating recently, like Xerox, IBM, Compaq, and Unisys were back on investors' buy menu as stock bargains become more difficult to find. Today was a double witching Friday, expiration day for quarterly stock and index options, and this accounted for the early session volatility as investors squared their portfolios.
Next week is a shortened week.
The markets are closed Thursday, and open for half days on Wednesday and Friday. Volume was strong with 880 million shares traded. The Transportation average continued to diverge strongly from the Industrials as airlines responded with a sell off to the recent leap in crude oil prices, which are the highest they have been since 1991. Analysts are quick to point out that higher oil prices are the result of OPEC's fidelity to its self-imposed quotas and not a sign of an inflationary trend. Other commodity prices show few signs of inflation.