March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: A lower close for all 4 main indices on the WSC Scoreboard as the Russell 2000 (IWM) led to the downside while the NASDAQ (QQQ) was the relative outperformer. The Retail (XRT) sector was the biggest loser on the WSC Scoreboard followed closely by Energy (XLE).  Unlike some other sectors, the XRT is not heavily weighted in a few stocks and, as of 11/10/15, has no stock weighted more than 1.27% so when you see strong moves up or down, like today, it is due to a majority of the names trading in that direction.  Bucking the trend…

Yellen sends stocks screaming, dollar dropping

Index & Sector performance 3/18/15 The Market: After the FOMC rate decision at 2pm ET, the S&P 500 cash index rallied nearly 40 points from the lows to the highs and did so, astonishingly, in less than 2 hours but the more impressive move may have been in the U.S. Dollar which moved strongly lower and continued its decline in the after hours tagging 1.10 in the EUR/USD exchange after trading below 1.05 Monday.  The U.S. Dollar has shown remarkable strength on late so it is not surprising to see a give back and considering how far how fast we…

Early momentum fades

Index & Sector performance 8/11/14 The Market: Stocks started off the day building on Friday’s gains but near midday the S&P 500 topped out and then spent the rest of the day moving lower.  All 4 indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished the day higher but the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) were the clear winners with the IWM gaining nearly 1%. The leading sector on the day was the Consumer Staples (XLP) but the stock in the index that stood out the most was to the downside and that is Dean Foods (DF).  DF finished the day down…