Taking the market’s temperature

Market indicators were mostly negative leading into the holiday weekend.

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Richard Drew/AP/File
In this June 23 file photo, trader Timothy Nick, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Just some random market thoughts and observations as we head into the holiday weekend doldrums...

* The S&P 500 looks to finish the 2nd quarter 2010 down 11%. An absolute slaughterhouse from the end of April on.

* You know the bulls are spent when we couldn't even get the traditional End Of Quarter Markups. Brian Shannon (Alpha Trends) called it "end of quarter window-smashing" yesterday with the indexes down close to 4% apiece.

* I'm hearing chatter about the possibility of a short squeeze but I'm not sure I see one brewing. You would need something on the horizon that adds a little fear for the shorts. You're going to tell me that they're afraid of tomorrow's ADP report? Or the employment numbers due out Friday?

* (Supposedly) positive news from Europe's banking wreck yielded little or no reaction here in the States this morning. But we all know how negative news is reacted to lately. A sentiment indicator if ever there was one: Good News = Blah, Bad News = Death & Dismemberment.

* Apple finishes down more than ten bucks on news of a Verizon iPhone launch in 6 months. So apparently, 10 million plus new iPhone users is an underwhelming possibility. Another sentiment touchstone for sure. Verizon was down, too. Oh boy.

* No one running big money is looking to do anything heroic this week, regardless of stocks having gotten, shall we say, a bit cheaper. Other than BP (because of Exxon rumors) and the Tesla IPO (hyped beyond belief), I saw little appetite for anything this week. The selling has stopped in many stocks as of this writing, but now what?

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Anyway, these are just some random observations as I take the market's temperature. I realize that taken together they are incredibly negative, but that's the mood.

We'll see how she finishes the week.

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