The NightCap
The Market: Global concerns sparked an initial move lower in early trading but the markets found support near the $2070 region in the SPX and then managed to finish the session slightly higher. Energy (XLE) was the clear leader on the WSC Scoreboard followed by Retail (XRT) and Materials (XLB). Transportation (IYT) lagged hurt by the State Department’s travel ban issued late Monday in response to the recent geopolitical events. After making a low in late August, the XLE rallied until early November and has since held in well consolidating below the November 6th high. XLE may be setting up…
Pop off support as FOMC looms
The Market: A nice snap back rally today as the S&P 500 continues to hold the 200 day SMA. We would not be surprised to see limited action overnight and in early trading tomorrow as traders wait to see what the Fed says at 2pm ET. Yesterday’s laggard, Energy (XLE), is today’s leader finishing up 2.86% followed closely by Transportation (IYT) which finished up 2.75%. Also posting strong sessions was Materials (XLB), Industrials (XLI), and HeathCare (XLV) finishing up 2.09%, 1.94% and 1.81% respectively. FOMC statement tomorrow and remember we are still in the thick of earnings reports which will…
Tech closes at new 52 week high
The Market: Stocks continue to rebound strongly after a rough week of trading last week. The NASDAQ (QQQ) led today’s charge finishing at a new 52 week closing high followed by the S&P 500 (SPY) while the Russell 2000 (IWM) and Dow (DIA) lagged. Many individual sectors outperformed in the session with Utilities (XLU), Reatil (XRT), Technology (XLK), and Consumer Staples (XLP) all finishing up over 1%. Reporting EPS 7/16/15 After the Close: Reporting EPS 7/17/15 Pre-Market: Analyst Comments:
Can EPS decouple market from Oil?
Index & Sector performance 1/12/15 The Market: We noted in the Thursday end-of-day write-up that the strong gains had to do with positive comments from Mario Draghi as well as Oil prices managing to stabilize for the second straight session. Unfortunately after managing to hold in Friday, Oil prices resumed their recent slide today finishing below $46/per barrel. As we have noted in other write-ups and you can see elsewhere, Oil’s sharp decline brings in concern over global growth and particularly U.S. earnings. Speaking of earnings, Aloca (AA) is scheduled to kick off the earnings season tonight and below you…
Volatility the new norm
Index & Sector performance 10/16/14 The Market: A session like today may look uneventful when scanning the WSC Scoreboard and looking at the end of day changes but it masks the large intraday swings. An example is the S&P 500 (SPY) had a roughly 50 point range from high to low today (5 points in the SPY) which represents nearly 3% based on today’s opening price. Traders and investors need to be prepared for an environment with increased volatility which could last for an extended period. The Russell 2000 (IWM) remains the clear leader of late finishing up over 1%. …
Late rally masks tough session
Index & Sector performance 10/15/14 The Market: A very volatile session in today’s trading which saw the S&P 500 (SPY) down 3% before a sharp last hour rally helped the index only finish down 0.75%. Without that late rally, the SPY would have been down year-to-date at the close. As has been the case of late, the Russell 2000 (IWM) outperformed finishing the session up over 1%. The best performing sector in today’s session was Energy (XLE). Like the SPY, the XLE was down much more earlier in the session but finished the session up 0.76% after a strong last…
EoD gains mask intraday swing
Index & Sector performance 9/17/14 The Market: Early in the session the markets were quiet as traders awaited the FOMC statement and speculated if the wording of the statement would be changed. The answer was that not much changed and specifically the Fed continues to state that they will keep key interest rates near zero for a “considerable time”. The initial reaction to the release was a sharp decline but buyers quickly stepped in and the S&P 500 recovered and then rallied to fresh highs on the day before finishing the session back where it started. The leading sector on…
Merger denied, collaboration approved
Index & Sector performance 7/16/14 The Market: A small up session in the market was helped by solid earnings reports in the morning and a potential huge media merger between Time Warner (TWX) and Twenty First Century Fox (FOXA). FOXA offered $85/share but were turned down by TWZ. This sent shares of TWX screaming higher finishing the day up 17.07% as traders reevaluated TWX’s worth and also speculated on increased offers. In other corporate news, Apple (AAPL) announced they will be teaming up with IBM (IBM) to provide business mobile solutions. BlackBerry (BBRY) was negatively affected by the news finishing…
Stong gains for shortened Op-Ex week
Index & Sector performance 4/16/14 The Market: From our recap Monday we noted that while the market still appeared vulnerable to the downside, we would also not be surprised to see oversold short term levels and the shortened holiday trading week provide a bounce. We did not at that time realize that we would get both the downside and the rally all in one day but that is in fact what happened on Tuesday and today was a follow-through on that action. Tomorrow is the last day of trading for the week since the market is closed Friday in observance…
FOMC minutes ease market concerns
Index & Sector performance 4/9/14 The Market: After bottoming and bouncing in yesterday’s session, the S&P 500 futures spend the majority of the overnight session consolidating in a tight range. This lead to an early breakout, retest, and continuation higher but it was after the FOMC minutes were released at 2pm ET when the strongest gains were realized. Concern the Fed would be aggressive with rate hikes subsided and traders rewarded the market with 1+% gains across the board with the Nasdaq leading the charge up 1.7%. Next on the economic data schedule is Unemployment Claims which are released at…