On Monday I asked if semiconductors were a bargain yet. I proposed that very soon they would be and then the sector would be a clear Buy.

Quite frankly, the sector didn't quite fall as far as I thought it would and now today, in the midst of a tech resurgence based on Cisco's better than expected results, semiconductors appear to running again.

Semiconductors led the market up and now they are leading the market down. What gives?

First, let's look at where we've been and where we are today. The chart below covers the period from the March low to yesterday, November 2, 2009.

Major market averages fell roughly 2.5% Friday but not everything went down. OPNET Technologies (OPNT) gained 4.7% today in the face of relentless selling in most other stocks. What gives?

Background --

OmniVision Technologies (OVTI) has seen its stock price decline roughly 40% since mid-September. Can we expect things to turn around?

Background --

Should investors be worried?

Stocks actually closed with losses last week. This is something we haven't seen much of lately so every time it happens, I begin to think maybe this is finally the long awaited pullback.

Another day when a bellwether couldn't save the market. Apple (AAPL) couldn't do it last week and Amazon (AMZN) couldn't do it this week. Even Microsoft's (MSFT) earnings beat Friday didn't help.

You can see in the chart below that the NAZ was up nicely on Friday but couldn't hold on.

Wednesday the market sold off in the last hour and major indexes ended the day with losses. Semiconductor indexes were underwater pretty much the entire day and the iShares Semiconductor ETF (IGW) ended down 1.72%.

Two well-known semiconductor companies were able to buck the downtrend and close with gains. Who were they and what were the reasons? Are there clues as to who else might benefit?

I have written several posts on stable value funds over the last year or two. With the financial crisis easing, the topic needs revisiting.

It is worth reviewing some of the issues around stable value funds a year ago and contrasting the situation with where we are today.

I often write about tech stocks on this blog. Yesterday read an interview with one of the most well-known managers of a technology mutual fund.

The Wall Street Journal had a conversation with Paul Wick, manager of the Seligman Communications and Information fund (SLMCX). With 20 years as manager of this fund, he has consistently ranked in or near the top 10% among his peers.

A second week of declining markets has investors questioning whether stocks have come too far too fast. A week of disappointing economic reports has bears saying "I told you so." Is the rally over?

We look for clues in some of the charts that follow.

The Durable Goods report for August came out Friday and landed with a thud. The headline number for new orders fell a surprising 2.4% month-over-month after a better than expected July. How did things go in the sector?

Shipments

Back in June of 2008, I featured the opinions of well-known Citigroup strategist Tobias Levkovich, who at the time was declaring that it was time to buy banks. He was 9 months early in that call. What does he have to say these days?

It seems that Mr. Levkovich is reasonably positive on the state of the U.S. economy. He is projecting GDP growth a hair over 1% in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2009 and 2.1% in 2010.

If you've ever distrusted the earnings estimates of stock market analysts, it looks like you've had good reason to be skeptical.

The following chart shows an interesting pattern. At the top left, we see global stock prices plunging roughly three months before earnings estimates began to come down. Doesn't inspire confidence in analyst opinions, does it?

Oracle (ORCL) released earnings after the close Wednesday. The stock immediately fell several percent after hours. Was the sell-off justified?

The company indicated that profit rose 4% which was in line with analyst estimates. The top line, however, was a source of concern for investors.

Running late tonight but I wanted to publish the two weekly Alert HQ charts, especially since I skipped last week.

By way of background, this past week had no news events of special importance but stocks returned to their winning ways. Looks like we are only allowed one bad week in a row before the bulls return.

Saturday's Wall Street Journal has an article titled "Investors Pull $2.1 Billion out of Leveraged ETFs." What's going on?

The article says assets in ETFs increased by $20.1 billion in August but declined in only two asset classes: leveraged and inverse ETFs.