Sellers appear on slow news day
The Market: An initial gap down in the morning found buyers but only to roughly flat on the session when the seller stepped back in and controlled the remainder of the day with all 4 of the WSC Scoreboard main indices finishing lower led by the Dow (DIA) while closed down nearly 1%. All of the WSC Scoreboard sectors were lower on the session with the largest losses realized in Transportation (IYT), Matierials (XLB) and Heath Care (XLV). Not many comments tonight but we would be cautious here. The market looks to be oversold in the short term and due…
Greece today, FOMC tomorrow
Index & Sector performance 6/15/15 The Market: An early gap down was attributed to their being no Greece bail-out deal over the weekend but the market found a bottom in early trading and drifted higher the remainder of the session. If the market can hold today’s low then it can start to build a base but below and it looks like it could target 2050 quickly. Healthcare (XLV) was the only sector on the WSC Scoreboard to finish higher for the session and is still holding its 50 day SMA. The biggest laggards were Industrials (XLI), Materials (XLB), and Technology…
Merger Monday doesn’t help market
Index & Sector performance 11/17/14 The Market: Despite a very active M&A session, it was yet another very tight trading range in the S&P 500 while the NASDAQ (QQQ) lagged and the Russell 2000 (IWM) led to the downside. In deals we saw Allergan (AGN) agree to be acquired by Actavis (ACT) for a combination of cash and ACT stock which totaled $219 per share. Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) who had also been trying to buy AGN stepped aside not feeling comfortable they could justify the valuation to shareholders. Two more big names in M&A news as Halliburton (HAL) announced it…
SPY is sitting on the 50 day SMA
Index & Sector performance 9/23/14 The Market: U.S. led airstrikes in Syria and weaker than expected European manufacturing data helped continued weakness in the broad markets with the Russell 2000 (IWM) again leading the way to the downside. After peaking back positive YTD in late August and into early this month, the IWM is now down 3.46%. The NASDAQ (QQQ) was the clear winner, on a relative basis, and was helped by a strong showing in Apple (AAPL) which closed up 1.56%. The S&P 500 (SPY) is now near, essentially at, its 50 day SMA and we are very interested…
Financials lead strong session
Index & Sector performance 9/18/14 The Market: Fairly broad rally across all the WSC Scoreboard indices. Interesting that the Guggenheim equal weight S&P 500 index (RSP) noticeably underperformed the S&P 500 (SPY) showing that the rally was not as much broad based and instead focused in the higher weighted industries & stocks. In individual sectors it was the Financials (XLF) that led all sectors on the WSC Scoreboard finishing the session up 0.98%. As would be expected the rally was broad throughout the components but highlighted by Citigroup (C) and Prudential (PRU) which finished the session up 2.42% and 2.35%…
Early dip finds buyers
Index & Sector performance 6/26/14 The Market: Just before the open the major indices started spiking lower and continued through the bells until roughly 10 am ET before finding a bottom. Then as if nothing happened the market spend the rest of the day climbing back toward even on the day with the S&P 500 (SPY) finishing slightly higher while the other major indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished slightly lower. Just like the broad indices, the individual sectors from the WSC Scoreboard were mixed but all hovering near flat on the day. The Financials (XLF) and Consumer Staples (XLP)…
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…
US Government shuts down and gains open up
Index & Sector performance 10/01/13 The Market: The old market adage Buy the rumor and Sell the news is somewhat in affect here today with the markets reaction to the Government shutdown. As we noted in last night’s Game Plan, with the realization of the shutdown now in affect and the worry of the shutdown gone, short term longs would look for opportunity to trade a bounce. A gap up was quickly consolidated after roughly 30 minutes of trading and then pressed higher until 12:30 pm EST. After 12:30 there was a roll over which took the index down until…
Daily Wrap
DJIA+115.57 (+0.87%) to 13,350.96; S&P 500+16.43 (+1.15%) to 1,446.79; NASDAQ+43.93 (+1.46%) to 3,054.53; Today started with a small move into the 1434 resistance we had noted was above last night but after some quick morning consolidation below, we were off to the races following yesterday’s big gains with another nice day higher today. Leading the way yesterday was the Financials and while they are not the broad leader again today they followed up nicely on the back of positive comments from Meredith Whitney after yesterday’s close and making the financial talk circuit today. Specifically she upgraded Bank of America (BAC),…