Dead Cat Bounce or something stronger?

Anyway you look at it, 6 or ½ dozen, the equities markets have crashed. With two and a half months left in 2008 there is an uphill battle to just get back to even. Just this past week the DJIA lost 18.2%, the Nasdaq lost 15.3% and the S&P 500 lost 18.2%. The yearly losses are staggering with the DJIA standing at 36.3%, the Nasdaq at 37.8% and the S&P 500 at 8.8%.

After a week of such staggering losses it shouldn’t be too surprising to see a bit of a bounce here. The question is though how high and how long. Remember, we are in a bear market so don’t get overly aggressive with any new position, long or short. There weren’t any skeletons that fell out of the closet over the weekend so perhaps Tomorrow will be positive.

This coming week holds quite a few catalysts that the market could use as a sustained bounce, if the numbers are good. On Wednesday, we get the producer price index (PPI) along with retail sales and both of those carry some weight. On Thursday we get the consumer price index (CPI) and that will shed some light on the beaten down consumer. Should be an interesting week as Monday starts us off with the bond market being closed and several economic events and earnings finish up the week.