Does sluggish trading on the NYSE signal a fizzle for stocks?

Posted Jul 26th 2009 1:40PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Major Movement, S and P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ

What's new? Well, trading on the NYSE is sluggish. In fact it's the slowest in two decades. Now, some of this is normal. Brokers often take vacations in July and August. Those who can do so rush out to the Hamptons or Long Island.

But this year is notably slow. Investors are busy digesting second quarter earnings and trying to figure out what to do next. The Dow did reach the 9,000 mark this week, though. We've seen a 44% rally off the March 9 lows, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, the steepest since the 1930s.

So here we are at new highs for the year. As an investor, do you take your profits now or stay in the market and see what the third quarter brings? If investors take some money off the table, we could see a pullback from these levels until the bulls regroup at a lower level, then make a new assault to higher highs.

By this time we've perhaps squeezed the shorts out of the market and taken on new buyers as the rally progressed. After about a 2600 point rally in the Dow, what would you do -- sell or hang on?

Better still, if you missed the rally, do you jump on now, hoping for still higher prices? We have a sluggish economy with a steep rally in stock prices. Has the market gotten ahead of itself or has all of this already been priced into the market? These are all questions that investors are wondering about.

What about you? Would you buy stocks now?

Tags: Dow, earnings, inthenews, NYSE, rally