Wall Street Strategies'  Instablog

"Blow horns you sure sound pretty
Your violins keep movin' to the nitty gritty
When you hear the scratch of the guitars scratchin'
Then you'll know that rhythm carries all the action, so
Woah yeah

Turn the beat around
Love to hear the percussion
Turn it upside down
Love to hear the percussion
Love to hear it"

We are witnessing two things in the market:

• Some anxiety over the true status of the economy and its direction
• A shift from some of the more dubious leaders of the market to more quality names

The beat kept playing yesterday, but there was a massive shift into blue chip names, companies that are positioned to take advantage of recessions and finally appear to be doing just that. Strong earnings from multinational corporations and many so-so results from technology names sent investors rushing out of NASDAQ names and into the waiting arms of the Dow names. The signal, however, that investors wanted to be in the mix even if it meant bigger quality names even helped the NASDAQ before the session was finished.

The Dow was the star yesterday; normally staid, it was percussions and horns and the conductor all rolled into one.

Year to date the NASDAQ Composite has left the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the dust, up more than 100.0% more than its senior rival. The last few days, however, the Dow has been moving ahead. All the big names in tech have reported, and there is some shakiness (mostly profit taking pressure) the last few sessions.

Written by Charles Payne, CEO and Principal Analyst of Wall Street Strategies (wstreet.com) providing independent stock market research to over 30,000 subscribers, in more than 60 countries. Mr. Payne is a regular contributor to the Fox Business and Fox News Networks. For more information about Mr. Payne, please refer to the company’s website www.wstreet.com.