March 19, 2024

Market starts on Tryptophan

Index & Sector performance 12/2/13

The Market:

Overall not a very active day in this first full trading session after the Thanksgiving holiday and to start December.      Today’s action started with an early dip that was quickly bought and started to rally higher until 12:30 pm EST.  That is where the rally lost steam and started a descent back down toward the earlier lows.  The market reached and went through those lows finally closing at $1800 in the S&P 500.  It is unclear if this slow start to the month is about to start a slide or if it is yet another brief pause that refreshes.  Without a more clear set-up in the S&P we will look at the index as vulnerable to the downside until $1806 and further $1810 can be recaptured.  On the downside we will be watching the 20 & 50 day SMA coming in as of the close at $1785.5 and $1745 respectively as potential support.

In economic data today we saw Final Manufacturing PMI and ISM Manufacturing PMI come in better than expected while ISM Manufacturing Prices came in slightly light.  Also reported was September and October Construction spending with September missing expectations and October beating.  Tomorrow there is not much on the schedule but one to watch is Total Vehicle Sales.

Story Stocks:

A great deal of focus in today’s trading was on retail and how the beginning of the holiday shopping season looks.  There were competing numbers across research firms showing slightly up and down but there appears to be a consensus that online shopping was strongly higher and that helped propel eBay (EBAY) X5 higher in today’s trading.

Amazon.com (AMZN) was also in focus although after a strong start to the day closed off the highs down X%.  The buzz was not only do to the strong cyber retail numbers but also about what CEO Jeff Bezos said in a 60 minutes interview stating that the company is reviewing the use of unmanned drones to ship smaller packages.

Dow Chemical (DOW) closed up X% after releasing a plan to sell off some assets and focus primarily on higher-margin units while scaling back on commodity exposure.  DOW plans to use the proceeds from the asset sales to “maximize shareholder value”.

The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: LTXC, ISLE, REX, FHCO

Analyst Comments:

Upgrades 12/2/13

Downgrades 12/2/13

Initiations 12/2/13

Price Target Changes 12/2/13

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