March 29, 2024

Daily Wrap

DJIA +157.58 (+1.08%) to 14,756.78; S&P 500 +22.21 (+1.43%) to 1,574.57; NASDAQ +40.94 (+1.46%) to 2,838.41

Someone sounded an “all clear” notice today and the major indices all had nice gains including the S&P 500 which closed up over 1.4% for the day and at the day’s highs.  The bottom was actually made in the futures yesterday not long after the close.  Sometimes when you see bounces like this you will see an index like the Dow lead which I am always a skeptic of but today the S&P 500, Russell 2000 and Nasdaq Composite all outpaced the Dow to the upside with the Russell gaining the most.  This was a broad bounce back.

Having just said how broad the rally was today, we essentially clawed back half of yesterday’s losses (little more) so I would take it in stride and force the market to show we more until I went head first back into playing longs.  This could all just be that we came within points of the S&P 500 futures (continuous contract) 50 day SMA providing a level for a technical bounce which coincided with some positive economic data and no further spill over from yesterday’s horrific events in Boston.

In stock new today, Coca-Cola (KO), gained 5.6% after reporting earnings before the market open that beat both revenue and EPS estimates.  They also then noted they will look to restructure their US bottling system sooner than was previously forecast. Along with KO, another Dow component reported earnings, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), which beat both EPS and revenue and closed a respectable 2% higher on the day.

I have also been following the bank/financial stocks earnings closely this quarter as I felt they would be under more scrutiny and over all just seemed to be the topic of discussion amongst many traders/investors and talking heads.  We had further reports from some big names today including Blackrock (BLK), Goldman Sachs (GS) and U.S. Bancorp (USB).  Results were somewhat mixed as GS beat handily, BLK beat slightly and USB met EPS but fell short of revenue.  Further muddying the water, GS who beat handily, traded lower while BLK and USB both ended the day slightly higher.

The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: BAC, ABT, PNC, BK, MAT, DGX, STJ, TXT

In analyst notes today, Microsoft (MSFT), Mr. Softy, found its way onto the upgrade page after predominantly being on the downgrades list after Morgan Stanley went to an Overweight with a $36 price target.  Another upgrade that caught my eye was Owens Corning (OC) which was upgraded to Buy at Citigroup with a $48 price target.  In the downgrades, Macquarie went to an Underperform on Chicago Bridge and Iron (CBI) with a $44 price target and JP Morgan went to Underweight on C.H. Robinson (CHRW).  Some of these and other upgrades and downgrades for the day can be found each morning when I post my 9 @ 9 in the Upgrades/Downgrades section.

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