Great Initial Claims data but….

Index & Sector performance 9/12/13

The Market:

The markets saw a small down day which after the recent bullish action only seems to be best described as a consolidation.  The leading sector of the day was technology which saw Apple (AAPL) Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) lead but the next best sector was the Consumer Staples and the standout there was Walgreen (WAG) which caught an upgrade to Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs.

In economic data there was a great deal of data including the often watched Initial Jobless Claims which came in better than expected posting a 292K number vs the consensus estimate of 330K.  Unfortunately this solid number came with an asterisk that two states data might be faulty due to a computer updates.  Tomorrow we will get PPI and Michigan Consumer Sentiment.

Story Stocks:

In the news was Dell (DELL) whose board approved the $13.88 per share takeover which was lead by founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners.

Disney (DIS) closed up 2.42% after announcing at a presentation that the company would look to repurchase $6-8B in stock next year.

Lastly, Pandora (P), yesterday after the close, named Brian McAndrews, a former Microsoft (MSFT) executive, their new CEO.

lululemon (LULU) was a notable loser of the day closing down over 5% after earnings and outlook missed consensus estimates.

Analyst Comments:

Upgrade 9/12/13

Downgrades 9/12/13

Initiations 9/12/13

The Game Plan:

We tagged the upside gap we have been expecting and now if the S&P 500 can hold 1670 and then 1660, we could be next targeting the recent highs over 1700.  Otherwise the market could be looking at a larger pullback toward the 200 day SMA.