March 19, 2024

Earnings should take center stage

The Market: Not much movement in today’s action as we saw a drop in volume across all the major Indices.  The overnight session saw futures move lower which seemed primarily due to some exhaustion in the markets but not helping was China’s GDP numbers which met expectations but slowed compared to the prior quarter.  With this being a light Economic Data week, we expect focus to be on individual stocks as they report earnings.  Below is a list of names that reported tonight after the close and that will report tomorrow with even more listed in the Events Calendar. In…

QQQ & IWM reach new highs

Index & Sector performance 2/26/15 The Market: More churn today in the markets but again the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) showed more strength than the S&P 500 (SPY) with the QQQ and IWM reaching new 52-week closing highs on the session. Crude oil lost over 5% today which helped send the Energy (XLE) sector 1.88% lower.  We noted in our 2/18/15 nightly recap when the XLE was trading above $81 that we would look for a pullback toward $78 as a buying opportunity.  Closing today at $79.35, we would ideally like to see lower levels before dipping into…

Oil trades below $50 & leads market lower

Index & Sector performance 1/5/15 The Market: The market was again led by Oil’s decline as we closed below $50 per barrel for the first time since 2009.  In the Analyst Comments below you will see a downgrade for Caterpillar (CAT) by JP Morgan.  In the note the analyst commented that up to 30% of CAT’s revenue could be under pressure due to lower oil prices.  Similarly, Evercore downgraded Terex (TEX) to Hold with an $26 target and United Rentals (URI) to Sell with a $87 target citing concerns that oil’s sharp decline will hurt energy investments and thus construction…

Markets stop slide, fight back

Index & Sector performance 8/4/14 The Market: After two strong down days, all 4 indices on the WSC Scoreboard managed to find bottoms and rally with the Russell 2000 (IWM) leading the charge finishing the day 0.89% higher.  One note of caution, volume was on the light side when compared to the previous two sessions.  Our suggestion would be to watch the first major pullback after today’s move.  If it is orderly then the market likely has unfinished business to the upside, otherwise we will likely see another push lower. In individual sectors it was green across the board except…

ECB moved & so did the markets

Index & Sector performance 11/7/13 The Market: The S&P 500 spiked higher around 8am EST time after the ECB announced a rate cut.  This move was further helped by a strong Q3 GDP number.  While we opened off the pre-market highs, the real selling began after the bells.  After each move lower the market tried to stage a rally but all were sold.  The S&P 500 closed right at the 20 day SMA  From peak to trough using the S&P futures we saw a near 30 point swing to the downside. In economic news, GDP came in much stronger than…

Week in Review

DJIA +35.87 (+0.24%) to 15,118.49; S&P 500 +7.03 (+0.43%) to 1,633.70; NASDAQ +19.90 (+0.67%) to 2,981.02 Friday was a very choppy trading session which sent the index bouncing around and when it looked like it could possible be setting up for a late day sell-off ended up instead closing near highs for the day.  In economic news the calendar was light but had a great deal of Fed speak throughout the day including Chairman Bernanke right near the open. The Dell (DELL) going private saga continued where two large DELL investors, Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management, advised that they will not be voting for Michael…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +48.92 (+0.32%) to 15,105.12; S&P 500 +6.73 (+0.41%) to 1,632.69; NASDAQ +15.36 (+0.52%) to 2,968.24 The market continues to grind higher during.  Today started with a gap lower which like many others in the past was quickly bought up and sent to new highs.  There was a brief downdraft late in the day sending the markets back down toward even on the day but yet again the bulls stepped in and not only regained all those late losses but again extended higher into the close.  Tomorrow we have  Unemployment claims and I show estimates at 333K with a reminder that last week’s number was the…