Today's moves in the stock market say a lot about the psychology of investors right now. Read most market commentary, and you'll find two conflicting trends. On one hand, pockets of the economy are starting to look a little better, albeit well below full strength. Yet it seems as if investors would somehow prefer it if the news were really bad, because they'd then think that the Federal Reserve would have no choice but to take additional action to stimulate economic growth. As is, the tepid recovery has thwarted hopes of Fed intervention and, as a result, the Dow Jones Industrials
The biggest losers among Dow components all faced bad news today. As I mentioned earlier today, Hewlett-Packard
But, looking down the list, you'll find a host of stocks falling for more general reasons. Alcoa
Similarly, JPMorgan Chase
Finally, even some defensive stocks did poorly. Coca-Cola
Four days in a row
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