The consensus seems to be that the debt ceiling will be raised in time and we are just waiting on the details of the deal. That belief gave the buyers confidence early in trading but worries about a USA credit rating down grade late in the day gave us a soft close and breadth finished close to 4-to-1 negative with precious metals and big-cap NASDAQ names outperforming. The new highs in the NASDAQ contracted as it continues to hang around at 2011 high. Big beat from BIDU and BRCM are offsetting weakness in NFLX and will likely contribute to the divergence again tomorrow. At this point, we are pretty much held hostage by the headlines like tonight’s surprise speech by President Obama, but one have to be impressed by the resilient buyers as we get closer to month end.
