Very quiet start to the week
Index & Sector performance 7/7/14 The Market: Today was a very quiet trading session which saw the market give back some of last week’s holiday gains. Looking over the Economic Calendar, this is a light data week and while Alcoa (AA) will kick off earnings season tomorrow after the close it will still be a while before we are in the thick of earnings season. We are watching the Russell 2000 (IWM) closely. In good times you expect to see the Tech Stocks and Small caps lead. While the NASDAQ (QQQ) has come back to do its part this year,…
Strong start with new highs
Index & Sector performance 5/12/14 The Market: A strong start to the week as a broad based rally in the market was led by the Russell 2000 (IWM) up 2.27% and the NASDAQ 100 (QQQ) up 1.65% while the Dow and S&P reached new closing highs. The two stand out sectors were Retail (XRT) and the Transportation (IYT) while the Utilities (XLU) lagged closing down 0.92% but remain the largest gainer YTD. We have much more economic data this week and tomorrow all eyes will be on Retail Sales which is released before the open. Headline sales are expected up…
Choppy session ahead of Jobs
Index & Sector performance 3/6/14 The Market: Overall today was a choppy session which started with an overnight breakout which couldn’t gain steam and retraced back to the breakout levels in early morning trading. The market then found a bottom and rallied to the 1880ES pivot which acted as resistance twice finally sending the index back down toward the original breakout region in late day trading. We expect the choppy trading to continue until the Non-Farm payroll number tomorrow at 8:30am EST. We have consensus estimates currently at 151K with an Unemployment number of 6.6%. Below is a recap of…
Triple witching tomorrrow
Index & Sector performance 12/19/13 The Market: Today trading range was rather tight after yesterday’s explosion with the entire day’s range in the S&P 500 only about 9 points. Tomorrow will be options expiration and a Triple Witching which can come with some volatility. In economic data today we sub a much worse than expected Unemployment claims number come in at 379K when 366K was expected. Other key data also underperformed expectations with Existing Home Sales missing expectations (4.9M vs. 5.04M) and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index (7 vs. 10.3). Tomorrow we get GDP and Monday 12/23 we have Core PCE,…
Icahn comments spark late day sell off
Index & Sector performance 11/18/13 The Market: It was a fairly quiet day in the markets until a comment from Carl Icahn appears to have started a late day sell off after noting that he could see the markets have a “big drop”. This sent the S&P 500 down roughly 12 points in the final hour of trading In economic date the NAHB Housing Market Index fell slightly short of estimates posting a 54 when 56 was expected. Today also some a mix of Fed speak and that continues tomorrow including Fed Chairman Bernanke at 7pm EST and President Obama…
Thank you to our Vets!
Index & Sector performance DATE The Market: Any given day stocks will make big moves but today with the bond market closed in observance of Veteran’s Day the broad markets seemed happy to consolidate. Do not be surprised if today’s action is the calm before a strong directional move. Being that today was a Bank Holiday, there was no government economic data announced. We did see the NFIB Small Business Index come in slightly below expectations posting a 91.6 when 93.5 was expected. Story Stocks: Merger Monday as ViroPharma (VPHM) agreed to be acquired by UK drugmaker Shire (SHPG). The…
Daily Wrap
DJIA -46.23 (-0.30%) to 15,612.13;S&P 500 -2.53 (-0.15%) to 1,707.14;NASDAQ +3.36 (+0.09%) to 3,692.95 The Dow and S&P 500 closed slightly lower while the Nasdaq saw a small gain mainly do to a good day in trading for Apple (AAPL). This will likely be a much quieter week with not as many big names earnings reports or economic events but we did have PMI which came in better than analysts expected with a reading of 56. Tomorrow on the calendar we have Trade Balance at 8:30 am EST and then FOMC member Evans is speaking at 1 pm EST (fireworks not expected). As…
Daily Wrap
DJIA -206.04 (-1.35%) to 15,112.19;S&P 500 -22.88 (-1.39%) to 1,628.93;NASDAQ -36.59 (-1.22%) to 2,959.50 You are likely living under a rock if you were not aware that today was rate decision and FOMC minute day. It was not about the rate decision itself as no one I heard was anticipating a move but it was all about the minutes and specifically the discussion of when the stimulus would end or the key word of recent times “tapered”. The decision and comments sent the markets tumbling and closed down over 22 points in the S&P and 200 on the Dow. In the grand scheme…
Daily Wrap
DJIA +21.73 (+0.14%) to 15,324.53;S&P 500 +6.05 (+0.37%) to 1,654.41;NASDAQ +17.01 (+0.57%) to 3,011.83 After the Unemployment claims number came in slightly higher than expected the futures started to sell off in the pre-market but that soon turned and by the open we were slightly positive and then rallied higher for the remainder of the day until roughly 2:30 pm EST when the highs were seen and we drifted lower into the close. As noted in economic news Unemployment claims rose to $354K and 1st quarter GDP slightly disappointed with a 2.4% reading down from 2.5%. Dow member Disney (DIS) was in the news after the…
Week in Review
DJIA +10.37 (+0.07%) to 14,547.51; S&P 500 +13.64 (+0.88%) to 1,555.25; NASDAQ +38.51 (+1.40%) to 2,780.46 In Thursday night’s recap I noted that the bears were not yet in total control but the bulls needed to get the index moving or there could be a further imminent drop. Friday was able to firm up and take back some control but you wouldn’t know it by watching the Dow which only pressed into positive territory within the last hour of trading. The broader indices were much stronger. Weighing on the Dow were three big names which reported EPS that were not met with great…