Up by Wes George Stocks moved grudging higher today as investors searched for leadership with a cautious eye on the economy, ever wary of the of Federal Reserve's ability to derail the markets with an interest rate hike later this month. Apple is trending higher once again.
Tomorrow is triple witching expiration day which sometimes leads to volatility.
Triple witching days occur on the third Friday in March, June, September and December when options, index options and futures contracts all expire simultaneously often instigating large institutional trades. But much of the advance was due to higher output by utilities, which are notoriously subject to weather vagaries. The Nasdaq has been trending sideways in the narrowest, least volatile trading range since last June. Interestingly, last year's summer rally break out didn't kick in till June 18th after weeks of trading flat. The Mac Observer Stock Watch Virtual Portfolio was up today on a good performance from Lucent, IBM and Apple.