A friend recently told me one of his favorite stocks was in crouch position and “ready to leap.” I'd never heard that saying before, and it seemed almost comical to me since the stock was under considerable pressure and looked more like it was in crouching position and ready to croak.

However, I thought about the saying a lot yesterday because for the overwhelming majority of the day the market was acting like it was ready to leap. Then there was the last hour of trading.

The market was flattened, leaving me to wonder if stocks could leap from their prostrate position. I was duly impressed, nonetheless, with the way the market held up and fought back, even trimming losses to only 25 Dow points at one point during the session. I think the market wants to leap ahead.

By the same token, stocks go down a lot faster than they go up.

Yesterday was a compelling session in the fact that equities and oil were lower out of gate and trading in tandem for different reasons. Actually, I’m not sure why crude was lower as there were enough reasons... excuses... er... factors... you get the point: The Wednesday update on gasoline draw downs, the changing political landscape in Israel and the defiance of Iran in the face of international pressure to squelch its nuclear ambitions.


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