March 19, 2024

ECB moved & so did the markets

Index & Sector performance 11/7/13

The Market:

The S&P 500 spiked higher around 8am EST time after the ECB announced a rate cut.  This move was further helped by a strong Q3 GDP number.  While we opened off the pre-market highs, the real selling began after the bells.  After each move lower the market tried to stage a rally but all were sold.  The S&P 500 closed right at the 20 day SMA  From peak to trough using the S&P futures we saw a near 30 point swing to the downside.

In economic news, GDP came in much stronger than expected posting a 2.8% number when 2% was expected and Unemployment claims met expectations coming in right at 336K which we had as consensus.  This numbers were not entirely lost but definitely overshadowed by the ECB news.  Tomorrow we get the Jobs report with Non-Farm expected to post 121K with a slight tick up in the Unemployment rate to 7.3% from 7.2%.

Story Stocks:

The long anticipated IPO of Twitter (TWTR) occurred and while not the best of days to come public, investors of the IPO had to be happy with the results watching TWTR close at XX for the day when the IPO priced at $26.

The much maligned J.C. Penney (JCP) saw another strong up day after reporting same-store-sales rose 0.9% for October.  JCP may have turn the corner after getting down to $6.24 on 10/22/13.

Geron (GERN) popped X% after a positive rate of response for imetelstat was posted by the American Society of Hematology.  Some were cautious of the move but Piper thinks the data looks promising and raised their target from $6 to $10 while maintaining an Overweight rating.

Whole Foods (WFM) closed X& lower after beating Q4 EPS estimates (32c vs 31c) on slightly lower than expected revenue ($3B vs $3.04B) but the issue was with a lowering of 2014 guidance.  Even the 20% increase in the dividend and $500M share repurchase program approval (which is in addition to the $300M repurchase program current in place) announcement wasn’t enough to overshadow the guidance letdown.

The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: COV, LGF, WTR, CVC, DRH, XTEX, AINV, MINI

Analyst Comments:

Upgrades 11/7/13

Downgrades 11/7/13

Initiations 11/7/13

Price Target Changes 11/7/13

The Game Plan:

Today’s strong sell off closed at the 20 day SMA with some positive divergence visible on the 5 minute charts.  If the S&P 500 cannot mange to rally then next watch the 1730 and then 1700 levels on the downside.

Comments are closed.