March 29, 2024

Low vol drift higher

Index & Sector performance 12/3/14 The Market: Another low volume drift higher today which saw the Russell 2000 (IWM) lead and the NASDAQ (QQQ) lag even spending some time down on the session. In individual sectors, Consumer Staples (XLP) and Utilities (XLU) were the only two from the WSC Scoreboard to finish lower which Materials (XLB), Industrials (XLI), and Energy (XLE) finished up over 1%.  One name helping materials have such a strong session was LyondellBasell (LYB) which has been down significantly since September but finished today up over 2% and was up more than 3% intraday.  LYB is a…

Russell clear winner in mixed start to week

Index & Sector performance 6/9/14 The Market: All 4 major indices on the WSC Scoreboard started the week moving higher picking up where they left off last week including the small cap Russell 2000 which continued its recent outperformance.  The quick start soon came to an end when each index made a top around noon ET which was never again revisited in today’s trading.  While the Russell 2000 managed to finish respectfully higher for the day, the rest of the indices were flat to slightly down. We noted in Friday’s  report last week that the S&P 500 closed outside of…

S&P finds support at 20 day SMA

Index & Sector performance 3/12/14 The Market: Overnight trading took the S&P 500 futures index down to our target region of $1857-50 with the low of the session printing $1853.75ES right near the open which correlated with the S&P 500 cash index touching the 20 day SMA.  From there we bounced and then spend the rest of the day consolidating in a flag which has broken to the upside in after hours but with not much gusto.  Until the index clears the $1870-72.50ES area we will consider the potential for more downside. Tomorrow is the heaviest day of the week…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +80.03 (+0.53%) to 15,040.62;S&P 500 +13.66 (+0.85%) to 1,622.56;NASDAQ +13.16 (+0.45%) to 2,950.30 The looked poised to resume its downward move into Friday’s jobs number but just after noon EST firmed up and started an impressive rally off the lows which also continued into the after market (so far).  From the lows to the close the market rallied nearly 24 points.  In economic news today we had Unemployment claims which came in roughly inline with a 346K number.  As alluded to earlier, tomorrow we get Non-farm Employment data and I have current forecasts at 167K and 7.5% rate. SodaStream (SODA) got an initial pop in…

Week in Review

DJIA +53.68 (+0.39%) to 13,649.70; S&P 500 +5.04 (+0.34%) to 1,485.98; NASDAQ -1.29 (-0.04%) to 3,134.71 Week economic data couldn’t put a damper on the S&P 500 which added onto Thursday’s decent gains.  The Nasdaq wasn’t able to join in on the party but had Apple Computers (AAPL), Intel (INTC) and Facebook (FB) as well as other weighing it down. We did have good economic data announced but not in the U.S., China reported GDP growth f 7.9% in Q4 which helped take the full year growth to 7.8% which outpaced consensus analyst expectations (7.7%) and the government’s expectations (7.5%)….

Daily Wrap

DJIA -23.66 (-0.17%) to 13,511.23; S&P 500 +0.29 (+0.02%) to 1,472.63; NASDAQ +6.76 (+0.22%) to 3,117.54 Again we have another day where the markets were somewhat mixed but overall were overall boring.  Opening roughly 4 points lower the S&P rallied to close slightly positive.  Today we had the Fed Beige Book but obviously there was nothing ground breaking to the markets and now focus will switch to tomorrow’s jobs data.  Last week saw a slight uptick in claims to 371K and this week’s expectation is roughly the same at 369K. Boeing (BA) closed down over 3% today and the news does not look promising.  Following a…

Week in Review

DJIA +3.76 (+0.03%); to 13,025.58 S&P 500 +0.23 (+0.02%); to 1,416.18 NASDAQ -1.79 (-0.06%) to 3,010.24; Friday’s action was another consolidation day just below the 50 Day SMA.  The entire range for the day was 8 S&P points  and while the index closed higher, we spent the majority of the day down. Stocks of the Day today included Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD).  Finally bouncing off very depressed levels, this has been a name we have featured as a Trade Idea.  There was news that the company plans to sell its Austin, TX campus but this rally seems more like en and of…