The NightCap
The Market: Stocks had another tough session following a second day where the Chinese market was halted. Chinese officials have removed the circuit breaker restrictions for tomorrow’s session and traders appear to be preparing for a volatile session but it will be interesting to see if allowing the index to freely trade will ultimately help it bottom — even if only for the short-term. Another session where no Sector saw gains but the relative outperformers were Retail (XRT), which was helped by Wal-Mart (WMT) after gaining 2.3% on the session, and Monday’s leader Utilities (XLU). Along with what happens overnight…
Huge intraday swings
The Market: As expected, volatility continues and while we would not expect 100 point S&P days to become a common occurrence we do expect to see sharp swings both up and down. Our current expectation is that the market will ultimately revisit this morning’s lows is not make new lows but in the short-term the market is very oversold and should stage some sort of rally — not just intraday like today but on a closing basis over a few days. That rally will be very telling and if weak we could be setting up for much much lower and…
Back-to-Back big declines
The Market: WOW! As we noted in Wednesday’s Nightcap, we expected volatility to continue and that there “seems to be a great deal of risk in the market”. That is why we noted a move below Wednesday’s low of 2070 in the S&P 500 could trigger a sharp decline targeting 2000 in the S&P to start. That is certainly NOT to say we expected the S&P to get there by Friday! The S&P did not make the close easy going out right at the lows evoking the fear of a strong gap lower Monday. While a gap down Monday could…
Oil gets crushes while market dips
The Market: A small down day which could have looked worse if not for a late day rally off the lows. Interesting to see the leaders to the downside were the Dow (DIA) and Russell 2000 (IWM). We were looking for the market to close just off the lows and then gap down tomorrow for a short-term long opportunity but today’s end of day rally has changed that set-up. Overall we remain cautious on the broad market and believe the choppy trading of late will continue. Energy (XLE) led to the downside, again, as crude oil continues to slide reaching…
Early dip is bought, finishes flat
The Market: Overall a quiet day in the markets following yesterday’s FOMC statement as an early dip in the S&P 500 found buyers and the index finished flat on the session while the NASDAQ (QQQ) led. The S&P 500 looks to need at least a short term pullback to regroup before any longer term move higher but we will be interested to watch that first pullback as we are from from believing the coast is all clear and that the market is off to new highs. In individual sections, Utilities (XLU) led finishing up 0.74% on the session followed by…
Market closes highe but no conviction
Index & Sector performance 3/9/15 The Market: Overall it was a quiet session with not much news or Economic data. The market was able to bounce back today after Friday’s strong sell-off led by the Dow (DIA) but volume was on the light side showing that market participants are not necessarily convinced the decline is over. In individual sectors Industrials (XLI) was the clear leader as names like Boeing (BA), 3M (MMM), and Caterpillar (CAT) put in strong sessions finishing up 1.06%, 1.22% and 0.94% respectively. Energy (XLE) was the lone loser on the session finishing -0.72%. One bright spot,…
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…
The 20’s support today’s drop
Index & Sector performance 12/8/14 The Market: The S&P opened lower but like every other recent micro pullback it found a bottom and started to rally higher. The market again looked like it wouldn’t be denied a higher close but then after the initial morning pop the indices started to roll and continued lower until roughly 2pm ET when they found a bottom for the session and moved off the lows into the close. The lows on the S&P 500 (SPY) and NASDAQ (QQQ) correspond with the 20 day SMA and we will be looking to see if those lows…
Russell leads overall dull session
Index & Sector performance 11/24/14 The Market: An overall dull session with the S&P 500 (SPY) and Dow (DIA) barely moving while the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) led. As is expected for the remainder of this shortened holiday week, volume was very light. In individual sectors it was Retail (XRT) posting another great session up 1.32%. Today the index was greatly helped by Outerwall (OUTR), operators of Coinstar and Redbox, which finished up 12.32%. Also chipping in was Best Buy (BBY) up 2.29% and Foot Locker (FL) up 3.45%. After spending much of the year down, the XRT…
Overnight loses quicky negated
Index & Sector performance 10/30/14 The Market: In the overnight session the S&P 500 futures lost roughly 20 points and it appeared to be signaling for a rough Thursday but then recouped nearly all the loses by the open and managed to rally for the majority of the day. All 4 indices from the WSC Scoreboard finished higher with the Dow (DIA) leading the charge helped immensely by Visa (V) which finished the session up 10.24% after reporting better than expected EPS and a new $5B Share Repurchase program yesterday after the close. In Individual sectors the clear standout was…