Labor Day is the unofficial end to summer. For those taking it easy during July and August, it's time to get back to business. The three-day weekend is often the last hurrah for the workers in many industries who know the rat race will be in full effect again starting today.
In the market, those lazy Fridays are over. That means the half-days followed by the early exodus to the beach are done for many in the market, and volume should return to normal. And for those just coming back, you are in for a nice surprise. Stocks were expected to rally Tuesday (and they are) after Hurricane Gustav didn't inflict as much damage as expected.
Gustav is now over western Louisiana and has weakened to a tropical depression. The storm spared New Orleans of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina three years ago but did knock out power to half the city. The city coordinated the biggest evacuation in its history as 1.9 million people left the coastal areas as the storm approached. It's smart to be prepared and it's even better that the storm didn't devastate the city.
For me, the market rally should be good news as a couple of my picks feel ready to pop. As with many of my picks, sometimes you need just one good bounce to achieve a gain. Right now, I have eight picks in play (To see my exclusive market picks, check out my newsletter,
Nails on the Numbers). That is near the fewest number of picks I have had in play all year, rivaling only the start of the season. Right now, the reason I have so few picks on the board is because my streak of gains in July and August brought that number down from more than 25 picks in play.
Lenny Dykstra
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