March 19, 2024

  • The NightCap

    The Market: An initial gap higher was immediately sold but an afternoon surge helped the Dow, S&P and NASDAQ finish higher while greatly paring losses in the Russell 2000.  Downside momentum seems to be waning and today’s mixed session is likely pointing to a bottom.  In all likelihood that bottom will only be short-term but we will have to see how the action takes place. Ideally, for the start of a move higher, we would like to see a gap down (or strong move lower in early trading) tomorrow which takes us near or below today’s lows which is again…

  • The NightCap

    The Market: Stocks had another tough session following a second day where the Chinese market was halted.  Chinese officials have removed the circuit breaker restrictions for tomorrow’s session and traders appear to be preparing for a volatile session but it will be interesting to see if allowing the index to freely trade will ultimately help it bottom — even if only for the short-term. Another session where no Sector saw gains but the relative outperformers were Retail (XRT), which was helped by Wal-Mart (WMT) after gaining 2.3% on the session, and Monday’s leader Utilities (XLU). Along with what happens overnight…

  • The NightCap

    The Market: Not a great start to 2016 for the Bulls but could have been much worse if not for a late end-of-day rally.   So far in after-hours trading the market has continued higher but we will need to see if these gains hold over-night as well as into early trading tomorrow. No Sector was spared in today’s trading but the XLU was the clear relative outperformer finishing down only 0.21% followed by the worst performer for 2015, XLE, finishing down 0.41%. Tomorrow is a light Economic Data session with only Vehicle Sales being reported but later in the week…

  • The NightCap

    The Market: No Comments with tonight’s write-up.  Have a great evening!       Reported EPS 12/21/15 After the Close: Cintas Corp (CTAS) est $1; Steelcase Inc (SCS) est $0.32   Reporting EPS 12/22/15 Pre-Market: ConAgra Foods Inc (CAG) est $0.60; Paychex Inc (PAYX) est $0.51   Analyst Comments:

  • The NightCap

    The Market: Global concerns sparked an initial move lower in early trading but the markets found support near the $2070 region in the SPX and then managed to finish the session slightly higher.  Energy (XLE) was the clear leader on the WSC Scoreboard followed by Retail (XRT) and Materials (XLB).  Transportation (IYT) lagged hurt by the State Department’s travel ban issued late Monday in response to the recent geopolitical events. After making a low in late August, the XLE rallied until early November and has since held in well consolidating below the November 6th high.  XLE may be setting up…

Charts

Utilities (XLU)

Feb 23, 2015

After making a new intraday high on 1/27/15,  the Utilities (XLU) peaked and started a sharp decline which finally bottomed after losing roughly 10% and targeting a key support region which coincides with other previous support/resistance levels and main moving averages. If we look at the 60 minute chart we see that as price moved into this support region, it started to build strong positive divergence on the intraday chart which can be a tell that support will hold — at least initially. While the XLU has moved off the lows, we do not think it is out of the…

Groupon (GRPN)

Feb 27, 2014

Groupon’s (GRPN) gap down on earnings has so far found support a the 50% retracement level from the 11/13/12 lows to the 9/19/13 highs. Ideally we would normally like to see a more of an orderly decline along with some positive divergence but gaps can make that type of set-up difficult.  We do currently view the pullback in GRPN’s shares as an opportunity but would only be interested in trades where there was a defined risk level.  That is what we now have with the 50% Fib which held as support. We believe trader’s can now use pullbacks for long…

Charts to Watch

Sep 19, 2013

Occidental Petroleum (OXY):  After a nice trade off the 200 day SMA, OXY climbed its way higher to the longer term trend line finding initial resistance as would be expected.  Any pulbacks might be the last opportunity in this name before it looks to be on a trek to 100+.   Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF): Has been consolidating well after finally putting in what looks to be a bottom.  With the now upward sloping 50 day SMA as support and the downward sloping 200 day as resistance the battle lines are drawn and the action is tightening.  Breakout above the…