STTG Market Recap Aug 27, 2012

Monday was another listless day of trading as investors await "the speech" from Ben Bernanke Friday at Jackson Hole.  Volume was very light (second lightest of the year), even compared to the norm for August - the only major story of the day was a reaction to the news late Friday that Apple (AAPL) had won a verdict versus Samsung on patent infringement.  The stock had been up roughly 3% in the premarket, but finished with gained just under 2%.   For the second time in a week, the stock jumped to touch the upper of its Bollinger bands.

With the S&P 500 down fractionally and the NASDAQ up 0.1% not much of a change on the technical condition from Friday.

As a now astounding 13%+ weighting on the NASDAQ, the chart below is more dependent by the day on that singular stock.

One thing to note is a lot of the sectors that should be leading if the market was rallying on "hopes of growth" are not doing much.  Note the 2 transportation bellweather stocks below - some very poor technical setups, and little participation in the recent melt up.

So you thought Americans learned something about debt in the recent crisis?  Not so much it appears - per Zerohedge we have this chart showing consumer debt is at nearly record levels, despite years of "deleveraging".  Of course this is AFTER countless fellow citizens defaulted on huge debt obligations (called mortgages) yet still we're racking up the liabilities.  Perhaps for many it is out of necessity (to survive) rather than the go go years when many would do the 2nd (or 3rd) mortgage to finance that vacation or new car.  And don't forget the massive student debt bubble (which now is larger than credit card debt in the country), which is building.