Investors seemed to like that news as Intel's share along with several others in the group, were on the rise. The news was not all rosy however, as Lattice Semiconductor, TransSwitch, Handspring and 3Com all warned. All except 3Com saw their shares fall in post-market action. The major indices have been trapped in a narrow range over the last few weeks and it is going to take something extraordinary to bust out in either direction. With summer quickly approaching we could be in for a continuation of this sideways journey for some time to come.
Small specs are the general trading public with commercials being financial institutions.
Commercials are historically on the correct side of future trend changes while small specs are not. Extreme divergence between each signals a possible market turn in favor of the commercial trader's direction. Small Specs cut back dramatically on the DJIA net short positions while adding to their net-longs on the tech index. Commercials are end users of gold and are hedging current inventory purchased at lower prices. Commercials have been building extreme net-long position in this industrial metal, a bullish sign for economic health.