Holiday trading continued
Index & Sector performance 12/29/14 The Market: Today’s session was a continuation of the previous week’s holiday trading and will likely continue this way for the rest of the week with Thursday being closed for New Year’s Day. The Russell 2000 (IWM) led while the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Dow (DIA) finished slightly lower. The leading individual sectors were the Utilities (XLU) and Retail (XRT) finishing up 1.15% and 0.98% respectively. As might be expected with the QQQ finishing lower, Technology (XLK) lagged followed by Consumer Staples (XLP). There were no scheduled Economic Events today but there is some noteworthy data…
BIIB helps XLV finish up over 26% YTD
Index & Sector performance 12/2/14 The Market: It was a solid session following Monday’s drop with the Russell 2000 (IWM) clearly leading and with advancers leading decliners by roughly 2:1. In Individual sectors it was Transportation (IYT) leading up 1.18% followed closely by Energy (XLE), which is still trying to recover from Friday’s big gap down, up 1.16%, and lastly HealthCare (XLV) which finished 1.12% higher and is now up over 26% year-to-date. Helping the XLV today was Biogen Idec (BIIB) which gained 6.43% on positive results from an early-stage Alzheimer’s drug trial. BIIB is a name to watch. Above…
Argentina default rattles global markets
Index & Sector performance 7/31/14 The Market: A sea of red today on the WSC Scoreboard with all 4 major indices closing strongly lower led by the Russell 2000 (IWM). Major media outlets pointed to weakness overnight in International markets caused by Argentina’s default. Looking at the technicals, the S&P 500 (SPY) and the Dow (DIA) both clearly lost their 50 day moving averages on a closing basis and did so on an increase in volume. The NASDAQ (QQQ), which has been this year’s strongest performer, is still a few percent above the 50’s while the Russell 2000 (IWM) has…
Financial earnings remain focus for week
Index & Sector performance 7/14/14 The Market: All four major indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished equally higher in today’s action. We continue to be most interested in the Russell 2000 (IWM) and the fact that the Small Caps are not enjoying as solid of a year as the other major indices. We ultimately believe for further gains the small caps need to be involved. In individual sectors the WSC Scoreboard was led by Energy (XLE) which finished up 0.87%. Also finishing higher on the WSC Scoreboard was the Financials (XLF) which saw Citigroup (C) beat earnings this morning and…
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…
Early volatility wanes, dull day
Index & Sector performance 6/2/14 The Market: Overall a quiet day in the market if you look at the overall performance but that does not show the early volatility the market saw when the S&P 500 futures dropped roughly 10 points at the open to only “V” bottom and spike back up near where the drop occurred. After that it was tight trading the rest of the day leaving a small up day in the Dow & S&P with the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 closing on the downside. Today there was some drama around ISM Manufacturing PMI after it was…
S&P 500 remains above the 50 DSMA
Index & Sector performance 4/7/14 The Market: Friday’s selling action continues on Monday as the S&P 500 index lost roughly 20 points. Today’s lows in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) correlated nicely with previous levers of reaction and the 50 day SMA. If this short term support is lost we could see the cash index next targeting $1800 and even $1650-1700. In the meantime, aggressive traders could look to use today’s lows as a level to trade again on the long side for a bounce. Reporting EPS 4/8/14 Pre-Market: Only one name of note reporting EPS tomorrow…
Monday’s bounce have legs?
Index & Sector performance 3/17/14 The Market: Today’s rally is not unexpected from Friday’s oversold levels and the early continuation to the downside in overnight trading which took us to the low 1820ES levels we were expecting. Until we see the market get through the 1865-70ES region, this action will be considered only a technical relief rally with more downside/consolidation to come. Economic data to watch for tomorrow is CPI which has core & headline estimates at 0.1% and Building Permits which has an estimate of 0.97M coming off the previous 0.94M. Reporting EPS 3/5/14 Pre-Market: Analyst Comments:
Off the 150 day and up
Index & Sector performance 2/5/14 The Market: In the News: The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: PM, AET, EXC, CMI, NBL, K, PPL, PRGO, ADS, SIAL, WEC, TW, AAP, VMC, DO, TDC, KKR, SNA, CSL, NUS, ODFL, AOL, PTEN, USG, NYT, FSC, HCLP, NILE Analyst Comments: The Game Plan:
US Government shuts down and gains open up
Index & Sector performance 10/01/13 The Market: The old market adage Buy the rumor and Sell the news is somewhat in affect here today with the markets reaction to the Government shutdown. As we noted in last night’s Game Plan, with the realization of the shutdown now in affect and the worry of the shutdown gone, short term longs would look for opportunity to trade a bounce. A gap up was quickly consolidated after roughly 30 minutes of trading and then pressed higher until 12:30 pm EST. After 12:30 there was a roll over which took the index down until…