March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: A late day rally helped the market close well off the midday lows but all 4 major indices on the WSC Scorobard still finished down near or over 1%.  Based on the recent action, we expect to see lower levels in the short-term. In individual sectors, Retail (XRT) was the hardest hit sector on the WSC Scorboard with Priceline (PCLN) finishing down over 9% on the session after reporting EPS which beat expectations but guidance that fell short.  We will be watching Ctrip.com (CTRP) which is scheduled to report EPS tomorrow, November 10th, after the close — CTRP…

XLU stands out in today’s action

Index & Sector performance 2/18/15 The Market: A choppy session overall which ended up finishing flat.  Some negative divergence is building on the S&P 500 60 minute chart but, even when it leads to a pullback, the divergence can exist for many day.  We wouldn’t be surprised to see the index continue to meander and drift higher for the remainder of the week into Options expiration. In individual sectors it was the Utilities (XLU) leading the way and by a wide margin finishing up 2.37%.  We would be watching the XLU closely here to see if it can build on…

Can EPS decouple market from Oil?

Index & Sector performance 1/12/15 The Market: We noted in the Thursday end-of-day write-up that the strong gains had to do with positive comments from Mario Draghi as well as Oil prices managing to stabilize for the second straight session.  Unfortunately after managing to hold in Friday,  Oil prices resumed their recent slide today finishing below $46/per barrel.  As we have noted in other write-ups and you can see elsewhere, Oil’s sharp decline brings in concern over global growth and particularly U.S. earnings.  Speaking of earnings, Aloca (AA) is scheduled to kick off the earnings season tonight and below you…

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…

Low volume give back after 3 solid days

Index & Sector performance 10/22/14 The Market: Today marked a give back after 3 solid days of gains.  The leader to the downside was the index that we have been watching closely for the past few weeks, the Russell 2000 (IWM).  The IWM’s underperformance throughout the year was a warning just as its outperformance near the recent bottom.  The IWM has put in work to find a bottom and start to move off the lows of last week but it is not our of the woods yet in our opinion.  First step is remaining above $107 and then the lows…

Early dip finds interested buyers

Index & Sector performance 7/28/14 The Market: Early moves lower in the broad market indices soon found buyers and managed to finish the day near flat on the session with the Russell 2000 (IWM) continuing to lag.  The DOW (DIA) played MA pinball with the lows in the early session touching the 50 day EMA while the highs of the session back tested the 20 day EMA. The stand out sector from the WSC Scoreboard was the Utilities (XLU) finishing up X% higher on the session.  Every name in the sector ETF was higher and that vast majority were up…

Very quiet start to the week

Index & Sector performance 7/7/14 The Market: Today was a very quiet trading session which saw the market give back some of last week’s holiday gains.  Looking over the Economic Calendar, this is a light data week and while Alcoa (AA) will kick off earnings season tomorrow after the close it will still be a while before we are in the thick of earnings season. We are watching the Russell 2000 (IWM) closely.  In good times you expect to see the Tech Stocks and Small caps lead.  While the NASDAQ (QQQ) has come back to do its part this year,…

Early optimism wanes

Index & Sector performance 6/24/14 The Market: After a very tight trading range in the overnight session, the market moved higher after the New Home Sales and Consumer Confidence data was released at 10 am ET.  Both handily beat estimates rising to their best levels in 6 years, however, this optimism proved to be short lived as the S&P 500 topped in midday trading and spent the remainder of the day losing ground finally finishing 12 points lower in the S&P 500 cash index and roughly 20 points off the intraday highs. In individual sectors, Energy (XLE) clearly led all…

Market lower & Energy higher on week

Index & Sector performance 6/13/14 The Market: After logging a close outside of the Weekly (20, 2, -2) Bollinger Bands in the S&P 500 last week, the S&P 500 finished this week slightly lower.  As we noted last week when it happened, this is a noteworthy event to track in our opinion because it has led to multi-week/month counter trend moves and remains one reason we continue to cautious on the broad market at this time. While most of the sectors from the WSC Scoreboard finished the trading session higher, it was again Energy (XLE) leading the charge closing up nearly…