Utilities shine amidst sea of red
Index & Sector performance 10/1/14 The Market: All four of the main indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished well into negative territory with the NASDAQ (QQQ) leading the charge down 1.60%. In individual sectors it was the Utilities (XLU) that stood out closing 0.57% higher while the rest of the list was well into negative territory. It was a broad rally across the XLU with many stocks participating but some noteworthy gainers were Exelon (EXC) up 1.41%, Southern (SO) up 1.01%, and NRG Energy (NRG) up 2.33%. EXC has been a favorite of ours but we would also watch SO…
Another flat session overall
Index & Sector performance 7/24/14 The Market: Another relatively flat session across the broad major indices as earnings continue to drive most individual stock movements. The NASDAQ (QQQ) and S&P 500 (SPY) have both managed to breakout to new 52 week highs this week and hold those breakouts so far but the S&P 500 Equal Weight index (RSP) and Dow (DIA) have yet to follow. The Russell 2000 (IWM) is up on the week but far from new 52 week highs and also seems vulnerable to fill the downside gap left from Tuesday. Speaking of the IWM, we noted in…
Tech and HealthCare EPS lead
Index & Sector performance 7/23/14 The Market: Today the stand out index was the NASDAQ (QQQ) which finished 0.64% higher with a lot of help from Apple (AAPL) which finished the day up 2.61% after reporting EPS yesterday after the close. The S&P 500 (SPY) and Russell 2000 (IWM) were relatively flat, while the Dow (DIA) was the clear laggard and the only index to finish down on the session. Weighing on the Dow was Boeing (BA) and Caterpillar (CAT) which finished down 2.34% and 1.53% respectively. In individual sectors it was HealthCare (XLV) which shined helped immensely by Intuitive…
Choppy session ahead of Jobs
Index & Sector performance 3/6/14 The Market: Overall today was a choppy session which started with an overnight breakout which couldn’t gain steam and retraced back to the breakout levels in early morning trading. The market then found a bottom and rallied to the 1880ES pivot which acted as resistance twice finally sending the index back down toward the original breakout region in late day trading. We expect the choppy trading to continue until the Non-Farm payroll number tomorrow at 8:30am EST. We have consensus estimates currently at 151K with an Unemployment number of 6.6%. Below is a recap of…
Reason or Excuse?
Index & Sector performance 3/3/14 The Market: Depending on your bias you likely either believe the events transpiring with Russia “scared” the market causing it to drop today or you believe the drop was already in the cards based on the technicals and the Russian incident just gives the news something concrete to point to as the cause. While we tend to be much more in the latter than former camp, we also subscribe to the believe it doesn’t really matter as in either case we are left with what happened and the decision what to do now. The S&P…
Do you buy the dip?
Index & Sector performance 1/28/14 The Market: In the overnight session the futures managed to recover gaining nearly 20 points from Monday’s lows. When the Durables number was announced and came in much worse than expected the market puled back challenging support but that support held and by the open the market was back near the pre-market highs. The remainder of the day the S&P 500 stayed in a relatively tight trading range with all of the major indices closing higher. In Economic news the Durable Goods numbers came in much worse than expected with Core Durable Goods Orders posting…
Analyst Comments
Today’s featured analyst comment is by Goldman Sachs who upgraded Gartner, Inc. (IT) to Buy with an $85 price target. IT has been on a strong run up over 38% the trailing 12 months and Goldman believes there is more in the tank. Looking at the chart there is some work needed but we think they may be right. If IT can continue to digest under the recent highs while the MACD continues to recycle then this could lay the ground work for another leg higher. What we are watching specifically on the stock is the MACD and the 50…
Daily Wrap
DJIA –138.85 (-0.94%) to 14,700.95; S&P 500 -14.87 (-0.93%) to 1,582.70; NASDAQ -14.09 (-0.49%) to 2,873.35 Mixed economic data including a bad ADP and construction spending number as well as poor economic data out of China helped send the major indices lower on the open. After midday, the Fed helped spark a small rally after reiterating their stance to be accommodative and even mentioned they will increase or decrease the pace of purchases in the future as necessary but this only provided a brief recovers and the market proceeded to sell off into the close. In economic news today the calendar was pretty full and started…
Daily Wrap
DJIA -43.16 (-0.29%) to 14,676.30; S&P 500 +0.01 (+0.00%) to 1,578.79; NASDAQ -1.25 (-0.04%) to 2,834.12 Today was a consolidation day after yesterday’s strong move. The action was general bouncing back and forth all day with not much to report except there was a late day rally which took the S&P to new highs for the day until roughly 3pm EST when it turned and sold off into the close. In economic data the only real surprise was US Durable Goods orders which came in much lower than expected with a -5.7% number when I had consensus estimates at a -2.9%. Tomorrow we…