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…
Early optimism wanes
Index & Sector performance 6/24/14 The Market: After a very tight trading range in the overnight session, the market moved higher after the New Home Sales and Consumer Confidence data was released at 10 am ET. Both handily beat estimates rising to their best levels in 6 years, however, this optimism proved to be short lived as the S&P 500 topped in midday trading and spent the remainder of the day losing ground finally finishing 12 points lower in the S&P 500 cash index and roughly 20 points off the intraday highs. In individual sectors, Energy (XLE) clearly led all…
Early Gains quickly fade
Index & Sector performance 1/06/14 The Market: Pre-market optimism was met with early selling which took the S&P 500 from $137 on the open own to $1824 by midday. The market bounced along crafting a bottom until roughly 2pm EST when the S&P managed to rally off the lows. While it never made it back to the morning high, the S&P managed to rally back toward even on the day but then sold off in the last hour closing near the lows of the day. In economic news we saw Factory Orders and Services PMI come in as expected while…
Holiday drift higher continues
Index & Sector performance 12/26/13 The Market: Gap and go as the S&P opened higher and never retraced climbing higher the remainder of the day. While again on light volume that is not to be unexpected due to the holiday season and shortened trading week. In economic news Unemployment claims came in better than expected posting a 338K when 346K was expected and the previous week came in at 379K. Also worth noting that previous week’s 379K was revised ever so slightly upward to 380K. Tomorrow’s session is light with no major economic news and only Natural Gas and Crude…
Beige Book helps market off lows
Index & Sector performance 12/4/13 The Market: The S&P 500 started with a gap down which was quickly bought and rallied to slightly positive on the day but that rally topped at 11am EST and made its way back down to and through the earlier lows. The market found a bottom prior to the Beige Book coming out but the release did not hurt the rally and the S&P 500 finished near flat on the day and above the 20 day SMA. In economic news we saw ADP Non-Farm Employment Change come in much better than expected posting a 215K…
Market starts on Tryptophan
Index & Sector performance 12/2/13 The Market: Overall not a very active day in this first full trading session after the Thanksgiving holiday and to start December. Today’s action started with an early dip that was quickly bought and started to rally higher until 12:30 pm EST. That is where the rally lost steam and started a descent back down toward the earlier lows. The market reached and went through those lows finally closing at $1800 in the S&P 500. It is unclear if this slow start to the month is about to start a slide or if it is…
S&P 500 closes at new highs
Index & Sector performance 10/17/13 The Market: The government put the debt ceiling behind the nation….until the beginning of next year. The temporary resolution should take the issue off the front pages, for now. The markets started with a gap lower which was quickly bought up and a strong rally continued to build off the 10/09 lows with the S&P 500 posting all time closing highs. In economic news Unemployment Claims came in at 358K vs consensus expectations of 357K so inline and then the Philly Fed Manufacturing index saw a small drop but was better than expected. CNBC reported…
Small gains break 5 day slide
Index & Sector performance 9/26/13 The Market: An early push higher on the S&P 500 was short lived and topped around 10 am EST falling all the way back to the open and even drifting into negative territory. The market then bounced, failed and after retesting the days lows used the last hour to rally into the close. In economic news the Unemployment Claims data came in better than expected posting a 305K number when expectations were of 319K. Unfortunately the remainder of the news was not as good with GDP coming in below expectations printing a 2.5% number when…
Week in Review
DJIA +52.38 (+0.36%) to 14,578.54; S&P 500 +6.34 (+0.41%) to 1,569.19; NASDAQ +11.00 (+0.34%) to 3,267.52 Friday the markets were closed in observance of Good Friday. Below is Thursday’s update and the weekly recap. Today the markets finished off the week higher and the idea that we will be rallying into the long weekend proved correct but not without a few attempts to take it lower. This also allowed the S&P 500 to follow the Dow in closing at a new record closing high surpassing the previous closing high of 1565.15. In economic data, the U.S. jobless claims increased 16K from the prior…
Daily Wrap
DJIA -64.28 (-0.44%) to 14,447.75; S&P 500 -5.20 (-0.33%) to 1,551.69; NASDAQ -9.70 (-0.30%) to 3,235.30 Today the markets started higher with some early optimism on a Cyprus deal but that optimism was short lived and the markets began losing ground after some comments regarding how this could become a “template” for other troubled nations and that means depositor capital being at risk. The lows for the day were eventually set around 1pm EST but unlike previous down days the market didn’t rally all the way into the close and instead today we bounced and mainly consolidated. Today’s low in the SPY happened…