Everything is flat for the week:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=5d&s=MAT&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=&c=%5EGSPC&c=%5EIXIC&c=%
5EDJI
I can't think of one stock that was up significantly this past week. Let me summarize:
Great economy: bad news for stocks
Rising interest rates, from ridiculously low rates, because of the great economy: bad news for stocks
Cisco, Dell etal: great news but not quite as great as one would hope: bad news for stocks
Most stocks I follow have substantially beat earnings expectations: bad news for stocks (???).
Consumer sentiment not quite as great as expected (i.e. not so great an economy): still bad news for stocks
Slowing Chinese economy (not so great an economy?): still bad news for stocks
Global demand for oil and rising oil prices, in part due to demand by third world countries (doesn't this mean that the economy will not be so great and interest rate increases will be moderate?!): still bad news for stocks, oh well.
Geopolitical uncertainly, which theoretically means a less than a great economy: bad news for stocks, shit!
Bad news is bad news, good news is bad news, news is bad, no news is bad
So the market flat lines until some one we all believe, like Barton Biggs, comes out and says, this is nonsense, stocks are way oversold; then we start buying like crazy.
It's all pretty dumb; that's why I prefer to day trade.
But MAT is still a strong long-term buy. After all, parents are still going to buy their kids toys, no matter what.
BTW, go LAKERS.