March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: A late day rally helped the market close well off the midday lows but all 4 major indices on the WSC Scorobard still finished down near or over 1%.  Based on the recent action, we expect to see lower levels in the short-term. In individual sectors, Retail (XRT) was the hardest hit sector on the WSC Scorboard with Priceline (PCLN) finishing down over 9% on the session after reporting EPS which beat expectations but guidance that fell short.  We will be watching Ctrip.com (CTRP) which is scheduled to report EPS tomorrow, November 10th, after the close — CTRP…

China growth concerns weigh on market

Index & Sector performance 9/22/14 The Market: The markets started the week off lower with many pointing to weak economic data out of China as well as comments from the Chinese finance minister stating there will be no major policy adjustments as the cause.  Leading the way lower was the Russell 2000 (IWM) which remains the clear underperfomer for the year with the Dow (DIA) not too far behind but at least positive YTD. Multiple sectors closed the day down over 1% with Retail (XRT) leading the way finishing the session 1.59% lower.  The XRT is now again over 1%…

Russell clear winner in mixed start to week

Index & Sector performance 6/9/14 The Market: All 4 major indices on the WSC Scoreboard started the week moving higher picking up where they left off last week including the small cap Russell 2000 which continued its recent outperformance.  The quick start soon came to an end when each index made a top around noon ET which was never again revisited in today’s trading.  While the Russell 2000 managed to finish respectfully higher for the day, the rest of the indices were flat to slightly down. We noted in Friday’s  report last week that the S&P 500 closed outside of…

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…

Analyst Comments

Analyst comments for Monday (11/19/12)  See the Upgrades/Downgrades section for complete & cleaner list Upgrades Company    Symbol    Brokerage Firm    Upgraded to:    Price Target ($) CSC    CSC    Deutsche Bank    Buy    46 Randgold Resources    GOLD    RBC Capital     Outperform    N/A Enerplus Resources    ERF    RBC Capital     Outperform    18 Agnico-Eagle    AEM    RBC Capital    Outperform    69 PetSmart    PETM    Barclays    Overweight    75 Dean Foods    DF    Goldman Sachs    Buy    22 Agilent    A    Goldman Sachs    Buy    59 Bruker     BRKR    Goldman Sachs    Buy    19 Barclays    BCS    Goldman Sachs    Buy    N/A Flowers Foods    FLO    KeyBanc    Buy    25 Actuant    ATU    KeyBanc    Buy    N/A Provident    PFS    Sterne Agee    Buy    15…