WizzWatch Market Newsletter 12.22.08 – 12.26.08

The week ahead will be the last week of trading for 2008. For the week that passed the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the week with a decline. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended slightly on the upside. The Federal Reserve stated that they will use all available tools to keep the markets moving. Financials, industrials and healthcare stocks helped the S&P to close the week with a 2% gain. Transportation stocks were the big gainers on the Nasdaq as fuel prices continued to decline. The best performers on Friday were stocks in the Household sector followed by Media –Radio and TV stocks. The Worst performers were stocks that traded in the Medical Systems sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the week above its 5 week moving average but below its 10, 50 and 200 moving averages, trading at 8,579.11 down 50.57 points or -0.59 percent on 5.5 billion trading volume. As for now we must see a break above 9700 in order for the Dow much higher. The index has been moving in a sideways consolidation for the past 9 weeks.

Over at the Nasdaq the index has been moving in a sideways consolidation for the past few weeks. Stocks trading on the Nasdaq have been moving slightly higher. The index has been trending to the upside for the past 5 weeks from a price low at 1,192 to a closing price on Friday above its 5, and 10 week moving averages at 1564.32. The Nasdaq ended trading on Friday up +23.60 or 1.53 percent on 10.5 billion trading volume for the week.

At the S&P 500 the index has been moving to the upside after several weeks of pullbacks. The S&P has been on a rise for the past 5 weeks and is above its 5 week moving average but below its 10, 50 and 200. A close above 918 will be a confirmation of a continuation in the price of the Standard & Poors 500. The index closed at 887.88 up 8.15 or 0.93 percent on 21.6 billion trading volume.
On the gold front there has been an increase in the price of the precious metal due to the drop in the price of the U.S. Dollar. The price of gold has been on a rise from a low of $675 per troy ounce nine weeks ago to end the week on the upside for the second week in a row. The Gold Index ended the week trading at $837.40 but traded as high as $883 before the close of the markets on Friday. The index ended trading at $837.40 up $16.90 or 2.06 percent.

As for the price of oil we continue to see more and more declines. Oil ministers met earlier in the week to discuss production cuts but that did not stop oil from moving lower. For the production cuts to work effectively we will need to see cuts from OPEC members as well as non OPEC members or we will continue to see the price of oil go even lower. Oil will turn around very soon being that index is in the oversold category. The oil index has been on a 19 week decline after making new high in price in July. We are very close to the price oil traded at when George Bush took office as President of the United States in 2000. I predicted that oil will pull back to $55 dollars per barrel but we are slightly below that number after that price was broken in late November. Oil ended the week trading at $42.36 per barrel down $6.76 or 13.76 percent.


*** Please have a look at the charts below ***
By: Marlin Rolle