Inflation still tame.

The inflation number came out this morning, much anticipated I might add. Inflation came in right in line with forecasts at a modest 0.2%. As expected, a happy Wall Street pushed the futures well into the plus side with the S&P futures at 3.70 and Nasdaq futures up 9.50. What this means to the small investor is that Wall Street liked the inflation number and markets in general will go up today. On the whole if you have a diversified and balanced portfolio, it should go up, all things being equal.

My stocks, on the other hand, are not diversified but merely a play on two that I thought would go well. Although I hope that they will follow the general trend of the market, they are also vulnerable to company or industry specific news. Fortunately there is no negative news that I can see for CLRK so I hope that they participate in any rally today.

More concerning to me is my short term play. Although there is no negative news out there on SCUR, I am concerned that it closed below $7.00 at $6.99. I consider round numbers as psychological barriers. So if the stock crosses a psychological barrier, I think traders see it as a good thing. In their eyes the stock has momentum and they should buy. If the stock fails to hold and drops down through the round number, then I think traders see it as not having enough strength to hold or sustain it’s momentum. Since SCUR closed below $7.00, I’m worried that it will trade a lot lower today. My hope is that the positive inflation news is enough to push the stock solidly back over the $7.00 mark.

Since we’re been talking about oil lately, I should mention that the price of oil is down again to the low $63’s. This is another good sign for any sector but the oil and gas sector. Hopefully it will just keep getting cheaper and cheaper to make the commute to work.

Also remember the witches are out today, so we may see some volatility.

Good luck and happy trading.