Talk Is Cheap and Has a Price

Thursday's market, which at the outset looked ready to repeat Tuesday's whitewash, was absent official words. A dramatic 206-point drop on the Dow Jones Industrial Average was swiftly rescued by the stronger-than-expected ISM report. But there certainly were lots of words bandied about, and the complacency that brought the market to such low levels of fear and volatility heading into this week is clearly not washed out.

After flip-flopping up and down all day, the Dow slipped 0.3% on the day to close at 12,234.34. At the first initial drop, the index slid as low as 12,059, about 20 points past Tuesday's low. The S&P 500 closed down 0.3% at 1403.17 on the day and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.5% to close at 2404.21.

The market was moving largely in unison, but sectors that seemed stronger included the homebuilders, where some bottom-feeding may have resumed. Centex(CTX Quote), D.R. Horton(DHI Quote), Hovnanian(HOV Quote) and KB Homes(KBH Quote) marked gains ranging from 1.2% to 2%.

The technology space showed some signs of life as well Thursday. Apple(AAPL Quote) gained 2.9% on an analyst upgrade, while Oracle(ORCL Quote) rose 2.1% on its announcement it plans to buy software company Hyperion (HYSL Quote), which soared 20%. Also, SAP(SAP Quote) rose 3.3% on speculation of a private-equity buyout.

The 10-year Treasury note ended up a fraction, but unchanged in yield at 4.5%.

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