Wall Street Weirdness as Dow Makes New Record, NASDAQ Falls

Maybe it's the weather, but investor taste for speculation may be turning, just a day before the hoopla over the Twitter IPO is set to take place. The 142-character internet darling will open tomorrow at a very overpriced $27-30 per share. It could be that some big players in the tech investing (gambling) space just freed up money to get into the hottest IPO since... um, Facebook, though the memory of that magnificent failure is still fresh.

Still, winners just barely edged losers on the day, while the place to be in Dow stocks was in Chevron (CVX), IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT), an odd grouping there.

The MBA Mortgage Index slumped sadly prior to the open, with weekly applications off seven percent, even as 30-year rates fell to 4.32%.

Crude inventories showed only a modest uptick, which helped oil stage a rally off of five-month lows.

With bond yields settling lower, gold and silver up moderately, it was very tough to get a read on the overall market. Corn made fresh 52-week lows, which is bearish for beef, but bullish for carnivores in general, with beef prices stable and possibly set to decline. Overall, however, falling corn prices is about as good a deflation indicator as one can find, especially priced in silver.

Steady as she goes, though, especially on those safety plays in the Dow, which should consider to out-perform in a flight to dividend comfort.

Tweet that.

Dow 15,746.88, +128.66 (0.82%)
Nasdaq 3,931.95, -7.92 (0.20%)
S&P 500 1,770.49, +7.52 (0.43%)
10-Yr Bond 2.64%, -0.02
NYSE Volume 3,298,818,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,989,898,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2851-2753
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 317-79
WTI crude oil: 94.80, +1.43
Gold: 1,317.80, +9.70
Silver: 21.77, +0.132
Corn: 421.25, -3.75