Equities ended lower for a third straight week despite the blockbuster debut of Linkedin (NYSE: LNKD). The social networking company soared over 100% on its first day of trading but that wasn’t enough to lift the overall markets. The Dow (chart) finished the week off 93 points, the S&P 500 (chart) – 10 points, the Nasdaq (chart) gave up 20 points and the Russell 2000 (chart) retraced 6 points. With Linkedin’s opening act, some fear that the street once again is not in line with reality and that we are now in a bubble, especially with the social networking companies. This is carrying over into the overall market landscape which is fueling the negative market sentiment trend we have been in for a few weeks now. Couple that with the traditional summer market, and we could be setting up for an additional leg down.

I certainly do not anticipate the kind of May we had last year in where the market fell almost 8%, however I do think the technicals (blog) are being challenged now and I also think it is very important to demonstrate patience and prudence when considering opening new positions in stocks or commodities in the near term.

Have a great weekend 🙂

~George