March 19, 2024

Weak ADP data helps market gap

The Market: The market gapped and continued higher for the first hour of trading which the news attributed to a weak ADP number which could keep the Fed from raising interest rates anytime soon.  After the first hour of trading the major indices began to lose ground and, while they all finished up on the day, they were all also well off their highs. Leading on the WSC Scoreboard was Retail (XRT) which was the only sector to finish up by over 1% followed closely by Technology (XLK) which closed up 0.97%.  The only two losing sectors on the day…

Farewell QE3

Index & Sector performance 10/29/14 The Market: It was a relatively quiet session the majority of the day as traders were awaiting the 2pm FOMC rate decisions and statement.  As was expected, the Fed ended QE3 but continued to note that rates would remain low for a “considerable period”.  The initial reaction after the release was a move lower but the market had already been trending that way since the open and, after the initial drop, buyers stepped in and ultimately the indices closed only slightly lower. It was a mixed session across the WSC Scoreboard sectors with Materials (XLB)…

Lots of data yields flat finish

Index & Sector performance 7/30/14 The Market: Lots of Economic Data/announcements in today’s session but when the dust settled it was surprisingly a flat session with the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) leading while the Dow (DIA) finished slightly lower and the S&P 500 (SPY) finished slightly higher. The leading sector on the WSC Scoreboard was Retail (XRT) finishing the day up 1% however Retail remains the only individual sector on the WSC Scoreboard that is down for the year.  The laggard was the Utilities (XLU) and decisively so finishing the day down 1.69%.  We remain interested in some…