March 19, 2024

Tech closes at new 52 week high

The Market: Stocks continue to rebound strongly after a rough week of trading last week.  The NASDAQ (QQQ) led today’s charge finishing at a new 52 week closing high followed by the S&P 500 (SPY) while the Russell 2000 (IWM) and Dow (DIA) lagged. Many individual sectors outperformed in the session with Utilities (XLU), Reatil (XRT), Technology (XLK), and Consumer Staples (XLP) all finishing up over 1%.       Reporting EPS 7/16/15 After the Close:   Reporting EPS 7/17/15 Pre-Market:   Analyst Comments:

Week starts slow – GS grounds BA

Index & Sector performance 2/23/15 The Market: Overall a flat session with the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) finishing slightly higher while the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY) finished lower.  The main drag on the DIA today was Boeing (BA) which finished down 2.26% after Goldman downgraded the name to Sell with a $132 price target. In individual sectors it was a mixed bag with the Industrials (XLI) leading to the downside finishing down 0.43% while the Utilities (XLU) led to the upside finishing up 0.68%.  As we posted tonight in the Charts section, the XLU held a…

Central bank news abroad drives headlines

Index & Sector performance 1/21/15 The Market: It was a relatively choppy session which saw the Dow (DIA), S&P 500 (SPY), and NASDAQ (QQQ) manage to finish higher while the Russell 2000 (IWM) closed lower.  There were reports out of Europe that the ECB Executive Board proposed the purchase of EUR 50B/mo of bonds in a program that should last at least a year.  There was more news from outside the U.S. with a surprise rate cut in Canada to counteract the sharply declining oil prices. Energy (XLE) led the charge today as all sectors on the WSC Scoreboard finished…

Big follow through session

Index & Sector performance 12/18/14 The Market: Following on the rally after the FOMC statement release yesterday, today gaped higher and never looked back with the S&P 500 (SPY) finishing up 2.50%.  Yesterday’s leader, the Russell 200 (IWM), was today’s laggard but still finished up 1.45%.  Unlike previous sessions where the markets seem to take their cue from Oil, today the markets rallied even while oil continued its slide. Again as would be expected on a day like today, all of the individual sectors were higher with Technology (XLK), HealthCare (XLV), Industrials (XLI), Financials (XLF), and Materials (XLB) all finishing…

Fed gains quickly given back

Index & Sector performance 10/9/14 The Market: All the gains saw from yesterday’s Fed driven rally were taken back in today’s trading with the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY) closing down nearly 2% while the Russell 2000 (IWM) lost 2.7%.  The NASDAQ (QQQ) was helped by Apple (APPL) which managed to post a small gain of 0.22% on the session but the QQQ’s still finsihed 1.62% lower. Some big numbers put up across the sectors led by Energy (XLE) which finished down 3.67% and is now over 4% lower on the year.  The XLE underperforming is not new but…

Early pop leads to late day drop

Index & Sector performance 3/11/14 The Market: The  market rallied pre-market into the open, pulled back and went again but was unable to break through a pivot confluence resistance area.  The pullback into the noon EST period started to consolidate but the MACD was telling that more downside was likely.  As we reached the 2-2:30 pm EST time frame the S&P again started to weaken and broke to fresh lows for the day. We will be watching for $1860ES and then further $1850ES for support levels.  On the S&P500 cash index the 20 day SMA comes in around $1853. In…

Thank you to our Vets!

Index & Sector performance DATE The Market: Any given day stocks will make big moves but today with the bond market closed in observance of Veteran’s Day the broad markets seemed happy to consolidate.  Do not be surprised if today’s action is the calm before a strong directional move. Being that today was a Bank Holiday, there was no government economic data announced.  We did see the NFIB Small Business Index come in slightly below expectations posting a 91.6 when 93.5 was expected. Story Stocks: Merger Monday as ViroPharma (VPHM) agreed to be acquired by UK drugmaker  Shire (SHPG).  The…

AA kicks off a new earnings season…tomorrow

Index & Sector performance 10/07/13 The Market: The markets started down strong but found early support and rallied into midday but couldn’t hold and press toward Friday’s close and instead sold off during the last hour of trading closing near the early morning slows but just slightly above. Hard to believe we are kicking off another earnings season but Alcoa (AA) will start tings off again Wednesday 10/8/13 after the close.  While AA no longer has the significance it once did, it still is known for ushering in the season and many larger more impactful names will then be reporting….

Week in Review

DJIA -0.08 (0.00%) to 14,865.06; S&P 500 -4.52 (-0.28%) to 1,588.85; NASDAQ -2.59 (-0.09%) to 2,856.48 Friday started with a small gap down that wasn’t greeted with the usual snap up buying and this helped lay the ground work for an early morning swoon taking the S&P 500 down over 10 points from Thursday’s close.  Right around 11am EST the S&P bottomed and for the remainder of the day was able to grind higher leaving a relatively small loss for the day (the Dow nearly closed positive).  This type of action is not uncommon at stretched levels as well as when there is…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +48.23 (+0.33%) to 14,613.48; S&P 500 +9.79 (+0.63%) to 1,563.07; NASDAQ +18.39 (+0.57%) to 3,222.25 Friday the market gaped lower and traded down roughly 1% in early trading after the weaker than expected Unemployment claims data.  That early trading marked the lows and the market rallied the remainder of the day clawing back some of the losses.  Today the market built off Friday’s rally and worked higher again today not only closing strongly higher but also closing higher than Thursday’s close before that disappointing data Friday.  The takeaway is the bulls fought back. Starting this morning we had news of a merger…