March 19, 2024

Weak ADP data helps market gap

The Market: The market gapped and continued higher for the first hour of trading which the news attributed to a weak ADP number which could keep the Fed from raising interest rates anytime soon.  After the first hour of trading the major indices began to lose ground and, while they all finished up on the day, they were all also well off their highs. Leading on the WSC Scoreboard was Retail (XRT) which was the only sector to finish up by over 1% followed closely by Technology (XLK) which closed up 0.97%.  The only two losing sectors on the day…

This down day came with volume

Index & Sector performance 7/8/14 The Market: *** Administrative Note: Due to traveling, this will be the last update for the week. *** A second straight day lower for all 4 broad market indices on the WSC Scoreboard but setting today apart from other recent down days was a noticeable pick-up in volume.  Leading the charge to the downside was the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) both finishing 1.2% lower. We remain cautious on the overall broad market and as noted in last night’s report are watching the IWM closely.  Its failure to lead and make new highs with…

Fed helps S&P to new highs

Index & Sector performance 6/18/14 The Market: After what amounted to a roughly 1.5% correction from the 6/9/14 highs to the 6/12/14 lows, the S&P 500 has since rallied and as of today’s close made a new intraday and closing all time high.  The majority of the gains were realized after the FOMC statement and rate decision where the Fed left the rate unchanged and lowered monthly bond purchases by $10B. We have taken a cautious stance on the broad market since 6/6/14 due to multiple overbought conditions across multiple time frames.  While the pullback from 6/9 – 6/12/14 helped…

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…

Waiting on Washington

Index & Sector performance 9/30/13 The Market: The lack of a deal from Washington on the impending government shutdown seemed to eight on trader’s mind.  While the S&P was able to rally after a gap down in early trading, the rally was short lived and around 1:30 pm EST the market again lost ground although was able to remain above the early morning lows In economic data we had Chicago PMI which came in slight better than expected with a 55.7 reading when 54.5 was expected.  Tomorrow we have Final Manufacturing PMI, ISM, Construction spending and Total Vehicle Sales. In…

No Summers….Yee Haw!

The Market: After Larry Summers took himself off the Fed Chair block, the markets baked in expectations of Janet Yellen who many feel will be more accommodating than Summer may have been.  The possibility of more stimulus from the fed or at least the likelihood that stimulus would persist was enough to send S&P 500 futures gaping higher Sunday evening and showing strength early in the trading session but the open marked the highs and the S&P 500 lost ground the remainder of the day closing 7 points off the highs. Economic data was light today but also ignored due…