Retail sales beat, Unemployment drags
Index & Sector performance 12/12/13
The Market:
The market continued picked up where it left losing more ground but not as dramatic as the 1% down yesterday. The majority of the losses where in the beginning part of the day with the market making the lows for the day around 12:30 pm EST and starting to rally. That rally halted around 3pm EST and the market used the last hour to sell off not quite making it back to the midday lows.
In economic data, Retail Sales number beat expectations and with Core Sales doubling expectations posting a 0.4% and Total sales up 0.7% when 0.6% was expected. Unfortunately Unemployment Claims came in much worse than expected with a 368K vs. expectations of 321K. Tomorrow we get PPI pre-market at 8:30 am EST.
Story Stocks:
UNS Energy (UNS) closed up X% after agreeing to be acquired by $60.25 per share.
Facebook (FB) gained X% today on the back of news that the company will be replacing Teradyne (TER) in the S&P 500 index as of the close Friday, December 20. Other changes to the index include Alliance Data Systems (ADS) and Mohawk Industries (MHK) replacing JDSU (JDSU) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF).
lululemon (LULU) gaped lower closing down X% after beating current quarter EPS but guiding lower on both EPS and revenue for next quarter.
Also closing strongly down for the day was IAMGOLD (IAG) which suspended their dividend for an indefinite amount of time.
The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: OPTT
Analyst Comments:
Upgrades 12/12/13
Downgrades 12/12/13
Initiations 12/12/13
Price Target Changes 12/12/13
The Game Plan:
The S&P has breached the 12/4/13 lows and doe snot appear to yet have any positive divergence or true signs of slowing. The confluence of Moving Averages now above should act as resistance with the 50 day SMA below a potential next level to trade against which as of the close is 1760 and climbing. It would also not be surprising to see an intraday violation. Try not to obsess over each wiggle in the market and wait for it to show you the coast is clear.
