Today's Market Update with...

Harvey Katz, Value Line's Managing Editor

The stock market did an about face yesterday, a comparatively rare event these days, as it rose early and swooned late. By the close, the Dow up smartly for much of the day, was off 92 points. The NASDAQ lost 13 points. The Dow is again below 10,000.

The precipitating events for the late selloff were a ratings downgrade of Wells Fargo and a lackluster Beige Book summation by the Federal Reserve.

The latter event, a less-than-upbeat analysis of consumer spending trends, gave some investors reason to pause. The ho-hum view of such spending may cause some to fret about the upcoming holiday season. Our sense is that it will be an ordinary holiday in an otherwise ordinary business recovery.

However, stocks have been rising in a way that suggests investors believe a better business upturn than that is ahead. They may be disappointed.

Finally, earnings continue to come in and they are generally making good reading. One exception was a lackluster report from eBay issued after the close of trading yesterday. That stock is selling off in the pre-market this morning. The NASDAQ futures, in response, are also lower, while the S&P 500 futures have ticked up after being down a couple of hours ago. Thus, a mixed opening is likely when trading gets under way in about an hour from now.