March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: Stocks had another tough session following a second day where the Chinese market was halted.  Chinese officials have removed the circuit breaker restrictions for tomorrow’s session and traders appear to be preparing for a volatile session but it will be interesting to see if allowing the index to freely trade will ultimately help it bottom — even if only for the short-term. Another session where no Sector saw gains but the relative outperformers were Retail (XRT), which was helped by Wal-Mart (WMT) after gaining 2.3% on the session, and Monday’s leader Utilities (XLU). Along with what happens overnight…

The NightCap

The Market: A lower close for all 4 main indices on the WSC Scoreboard as the Russell 2000 (IWM) led to the downside while the NASDAQ (QQQ) was the relative outperformer. The Retail (XRT) sector was the biggest loser on the WSC Scoreboard followed closely by Energy (XLE).  Unlike some other sectors, the XRT is not heavily weighted in a few stocks and, as of 11/10/15, has no stock weighted more than 1.27% so when you see strong moves up or down, like today, it is due to a majority of the names trading in that direction.  Bucking the trend…

Huge intraday rally as Volatility continues

The Market: It is not uncommon when the S&P is down 25+ points intraday for their to be a rally but to see the index trade down over 30 points and then finish the session slightly up is surprising.  Even with the recent volatility, we remain within a range from, roughly, 2130 to 2050 in the S&P.  We are interested to see if the Bulls can build on today’s move off the low and gap higher tomorrow.  If not, we would not rule out the S&P revisiting today’s lows in the short-term.  Expect the volatility to continue. Leading sectors today…

Heartfelt thank you to our Vets!!!

Index & Sector performance 11/11/14 The Market: A Heartfelt thank you goes out to all of the past, present, and future service men and women who work each day to keep us safe.  Without you, what we have and unfortunately often take for granted each and every day would not exist.  Almost zeros across the board as it was a relatively uneventful trading session.  Maybe the clearest example of how uneventful is that the entire trading day’s range on the S&P 500 was 6 points and volume was again light. As noted last night, we still view the short term…

XLE hit hard on overall mixed session

Index & Sector performance 10/27/14 The Market: A rumor Thursday of a doctor infected with the Ebola virus being rushed to an NYC hospital helped take the market off the highs and then in Thursday’s overnight session it was confirmed that the doctor indeed had Ebola which sent the futures spiking lower but by Friday morning they were off the lows from the overnight session and marched higher closing near Thursday’s intraday highs. Today was much more of a muted consolidation session with the S&P 500 cash index remaining within a roughly 13 point range which while not historically small…

Early momentum fades

Index & Sector performance 8/11/14 The Market: Stocks started off the day building on Friday’s gains but near midday the S&P 500 topped out and then spent the rest of the day moving lower.  All 4 indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished the day higher but the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) were the clear winners with the IWM gaining nearly 1%. The leading sector on the day was the Consumer Staples (XLP) but the stock in the index that stood out the most was to the downside and that is Dean Foods (DF).  DF finished the day down…

FOMC statement & new Chair tomorrow

Index & Sector performance 3/18/14 The Market: We would not be shocked to see the market meander overnight and into tomorrow until the FOMC statement and Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s first press conference.  While we do not expect there to be a great difference in message or tone from the Fed, do not be surprised if the market uses this opportunity to send a message to Yellen if there is something that is not liked. In the meantime, traders should watch  today’s high of 1867ES as a break could be signaling a move to 1880ES and the index should see…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -5.83 (-0.04%) to 15,419.68;S&P 500 -1.95 (-0.12%) to 1,689.47;NASDAQ +9.84 (+0.27%) to 3,669.95 Not too much action overall in the indices today.  A gap down open in the S&P 500 was quickly bought and rallied back toward Friday’s close only to fall back after reaching flat on the day.  The S&P fell until roughly 2pm est where it bottom and staged a late day rally which was unable to reach the highs of the day.  The Russell 2000 and Nasdaq managed to gain ground with the Nasdaq was helped by Apple (AAPL) which gained 2.77% on optimism for a new iPhone model to…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +60.44 (+0.40%) to 15,275.69; S&P 500 +8.44 (+0.51%) to 1,658.78; NASDAQ +6.57 (+0.22%) to 3,002.62 A very choppy yet still strong day to follow-up on Tuesday’s rip higher.  Today initially open lowered but by 11am EST was back to flat and then took off at what felt like an unabated rally which fell just shy of $1660 in the S&P 500 cash index.  The market then swooned almost back to even and finally finished up 8 points and only roughly 3 from the high.  There was a decent amount of economic data today and it was interestingly mixed but what will be watched for the…

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…