Markets Open Flat

It seems safe to say that the Sideways Summer of '09 has begun: Wall Street opened flat this morning, as the March rally appears to be leveling off.

In the first 20 minutes of trading, the Dow was down just a few points, or a negligible percentage.

The same was true for the broader S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq.

From early March until the first week of June, the markets showed at least a 30 percent gain. The debate was to whether that was a real bull-market rally or a bullish rally in a bear market.

The latter now appears to be the case, at least so far. No one expected the markets to continue a 30 percent surge, but the more bullish hoped that the recovery would continue, with the markets settling into a nice, steady, 5 to 10 percent climb.

Since June 1, the Dow is down 2 percent, the S&P 500 is down 3 percent and the Nasdaq is down a little less than 2 percent.

-- Frank Ahrens
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