Profit-Taking Today

Friday was a day for booking profits as investors expressed doubts about the economic situation.Reports suggesting consumer weakness raised the level of uncertainty about the course of 2010-enough to make taking profits a prudent measure at this time.Even Intel,with its sterling achievements in Q4,was skimmed for cream.JP Morgan Chase reported loan losses,and CEO Jamie Dimon expressed uncertainty about the economy in the conference call following its quarterly report.A disappointing reading by the University of Michigan on consumer sentiment further agitated the markets,raising the volatility level,although stocks did close off their lows for the session.The prospect of a three day weekend in the U.S. left traders eager to safeguard their portfolios with a buffer of cash in the face of a questionable opening on Tuesday morning and a cascade of further earnings reports next week,icluding one from Citigroup.