Nasdaq & Russell lead indices lower

Index & Sector performance 4/25/14

The Market:

All the major indices were down in Friday’s action with the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) leading the way lower.  In individual sectors the Transportation index (IYT) and Consumer Discretionary (XLY) were  the biggest losers.

The transports are an interesting case as they were one of the sectors making new highs recently but after an outside day yesterday the index followed through strongly to the downside today.  Leading the index lower was JetBlue (JBLU) closing down 5.38%.  After missing EPS yesterday, Reuters announced today that the Flight attendants will be looking to unionize.  JBLU was previously a non-union airline but earlier in the week the Pilots voted to unionize and it appears the Flight attendants might follow suit.  The only name closing higher in the IYT today was Landstar System (LSTR) which finished up 0.86%.  After beating EPS yesterday, LSTR received an upgrade today from Hold to Buy with a $70 price target at Deutsche Bank.

Looking forward to next week, the Economic calendar will be much more packed than this week’s which was very light (a recap of this week’s data below) and will include GDP, the FOMC statement, and Jobs data.  Focus will continue to be on earnings as many big names report especially in the Energy sector.  Lastly, we are watching the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 to see if the “rotation” out of the higher beta/PE names continues.

Economic Calendar week of 4/21/14

Reporting EPS 4/28/14 Pre-Market:

Companies reporting EPS 4/28/14 pre-market

Analyst Comments:

Upgrades 4/25/14

Downgrades 4/25/14

Initiations 4/25/14

Price Target Changes 4/25/14