Optimism seems to stem from flat performance benchmarks

With the significant fluctuations that have dominated the Product Design & Development Stock Index’s performance over the past couple of weeks, I find myself more uneasy in putting this column together after a good week than a poor one. So after reporting significant improvements for the second straight week in last Wednesday’s edition, I went into this week with one eye closed in anticipation of another dip. Thankfully, I was wrong.

For the third straight week the index improved, although moderately, from 1330.51 to 1350.88. During this same timeframe the Dow is up about 50 points, hovering just below the 8000 mark. This is after a high of 8177 on Friday and a low of 7800 yesterday morning.

So basically, although stock values and economic prospects are far from booming, there seems to be a fair amount of optimism stemming from these mainly flat performance benchmarks. Additionally, although unemployment continues to sit at the 8.5 percent mark, the flood of new additions seems to have ebbed.

I guess that regardless of how high the mountain is to climb, every step forward does improve one’s perspective on reaching the top.

Looking more specifically at the index:

• The aerospace and consumer electronics segments made some nice gains, while the automotive, medical and industrial markets were basically flat.
• Lockheed Martin (LMT) is up $3.13 from the previous week, while Northrup Grumman (NOC) improved $2.93.
• Grainger (GWW), which saw gains of over $7 last week, slipped more than $2/share.
• Apple (AAPL) stock prices continue to improve, seeing gains of more than $3 over last week, but down from a weekly high of $124.23. This marked the company’s highest value since last September.
• IBM (IBM) is also up more than $3, and trading above the $100 mark this week for the first time since early last October.