April 26, 2024

S&P rejected @ 50 DSMA

Index & Sector performance 10/6/14 The Market: The markets start the session in positive territory but the S&P 500 (SPY) quickly ran into resistance at the 50 day SMA and spent the remainder of the day pulling back.  The laggard on the session was the Russell 2000 (IWM) which was the first to go negative on the session finishing down 0.86%  Today’s high in the SPY now becomes a key level to watch along with the 50 day SMA and downward sloping 20 day MA.  This could end up being a choppy trading week. In individual sectors, Transportation (IYT) was…

Tech & Small cap trend change?

Index & Sector performance 9/3/14 The Market: While the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY) closed essentially flat, the Nasdaq (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) both finished decisively lower.  In addition the technical action in both the QQQ and IWM is concerning as both started the day gaping above the previous day’s highs to only then sell off the remainder of the day finishing below the previous day’s lows.  Those into candlestick charting will recognize this as an Engulfing pattern and can signal a change in trend. In individual sectors it the Utilities (XLU) leading the charge finishing the day…

Low volume rally led by Russell 2K

Index & Sector performance 5/20/14 The Market: An overall light volume day was led to the upside by the Russell 2000 followed by the NASDAQ 100.  In individual sectors, Utilities (XLU) led to the downside followed by the Consumer Staples (XLP) while the transportation index was the largest gainer with components Matson (MATX) and JetBlue (JBLU) up the most gaining 3.05% and 2.42% respectively.  MATX and JBLU both appear to be viable long trade candidates going forward. This is an extremely quiet Economic data week with a lot of Fed speak.  Earnings will play a role for individual stocks so…

How will traders position for weekend?

Index & Sector performance 4/10/14 The Market: Today the market not only took back the gains realized yesterday off the FOMC minutes but also the gains from Tuesday’s session leaving fresh closing lows for the week on a roughly 40 point down day in the S&P 500. With only one day remaining in the week, it will be very interesting to see how trader’s position tomorrow ahead of the weekend.  We have a hard time believing that traders will be anxious to position long going into the weekend after today.  We will be increasingly suspect of any early morning to…

LULU warns and market dives

Index & Sector performance 1/13/14 The Market: The S&P 500 meandered throughout the Sunday evening session, into Monday and even to start the trading day but then around noon EST weakness started to set in and continued to build.  Around 2:30 pm EST we had reached R2 support in the future but we posted at StockTwits that this support did not look like it would hold due to the MACD’s formation.  That support was indeed lost and the S&P 500 futures (ES) lost another 10 points to the day’s lows and 5 points to the close overall netting a 20+…

Apple finally lands China

Index & Sector performance 12/23/13 The Market: The market was able to produce a gap higher to start this shortened trading week which will include a half day of trading Christmas eve and the market will be closed Wednesday December 25th in observance of Christmas.  After the gap itself the S&P remained in a roughly 4-5 point trading range the entire day on light volume. There was a fair amount of economic data released today but nothing that really tipped the balances.  Core PCE and Consumer spending came in right at expectations while Personal Income slightly missed (0.2% vs. 0.4%…

Slow grind higher continues

Index & Sector performance 12/9/13 The Market: Another slow grinding day with a bias higher.  It is yet to be seen if this is a consolidation for a next leg higher or exhaustion with a leg lower to come.  To catch the most amount of people off guard the market could look to pop higher first to finish and then start a strong quick decline. There was no economic data today but there was Fed speak from FOMC member Bullard.  Bullard was a QE3 supporter and noted his stance that any Fed action is data dependent.  The increase in jobs…

Fed day snaps S&P 4 day win streak

Index & Sector performance 10/30/13 The Market: A small gap up on the open was quickly sold and the market pulled back but losses were relatively contained until the Fed announcement which sent the S&P spiking lower.  Buyers did then step in and used the last hour of trading to help close the index off the lows but not enough to keep from snapping the S&P 500’s 4 day win streak. In economic news, ADP Non-Farm came in lower than expected printing a 130K with 151K the expectation.  Core CPI was also light coming in at 0.1% when 0.2% was…