A Month’s Worth of … Nothing?

In looking back, it appears we all could have taken the last month off. Reason? The market – as defined by the Dow – has shown a net change of 8 -- 8! -- points since October 21.  Now that’s a sideways market.

And given that, I don’t see any impetus to do anything dramatic.If you’re long, hold ‘em.  And if you’re in cash, no need to rush into anything. I think there will be plenty of time to jump in on any year-end ramp.

As for individual stocks, I wanted to look at two in the news. The first is a play on oil, which topped $100 a barrel this week. I don’t know if that’s accurate, but from the looks of it, ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) appears headed down, not up. I think you can wait for a price dip if you’re interested in the buying the stock.

The other stock is Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN). The company recently announced it had entered into long-term contract to supply anemia drugs to DaVita.

Frankly, though, there’s not a ton of juicy buys out there. Hopefully, that will change in the next few weeks.