Sideline Cash Buckles Chin Strap, Gets Into Game

GuruVision: Housecleaning 2000

Before resolutions and Auld Lang Syne, this time of year begs for taking care of unfinished business. For many investors, that apparently means putting to work some of the heralded cash that's been on the sidelines, judging by today's market action.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each rose about 1% today, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.8%. The Comp's session was even more impressive, given the huge blowup at Network Associates (NETA Quote), which tumbled 61.5% on nearly 75 million shares, by far the session's most actively traded stock.

Trading activity was modest, but up from yesterday when a lot of market players were still on holiday. In Big Board trading, 1.1 billion shares were exchanged and advancing stocks bested decliners by nearly 3-to-1, while new 52-week highs bested new lows 310 to 78. In Nasdaq action, nearly 2 billion shares traded, and gainers led 7-to-6, although new lows led 386 to 130. ...