Is That Love in the Air?

No it's snow.

Insane is the only word to describe it. Apparently there are over 300,000 people without power in Buffalo this morning. They actually got over two feet of snow in buffalo. In October? Wow talk about your Friday the 13th. Apparently 80% of the roads are impassable and several counties and towns have declared a state of emergency.

But what about the markets on this Friday the 13th? Well the Dow is sitting at 11,947.70, a mere 53 points away from 12,000. So is Friday the 13th going to be a lucky day for the Dow? I don’t think so, and let me tell you why? Despite good news from GE and Microsoft, market will at least open lower on slowing September retail sales. Yes, right now the focus is on earnings, which makes the read on September retail sales interesting. If retail spending is slowing now it will have an effect on company’s earnings in the future. Since stock prices are based on future earnings, look for the market to drop.

Also a lot of the big players are reluctant to hold big positions over the weekend so they may pair down some of their holdings. And let’s not forget the Friday the 13th effect. Are there any people that are still superstitious on Wall Street? There are plenty of superstitious traders out there. When they are on a roll, they are reluctant to change anything they are doing for fear of breaking the good luck. But does this mean people believe in Friday the 13th enough to let it affect their trading? I guess we’ll never know.