March 19, 2024

Markets finish up but look vulnerable

The Market: While it was not our expectation, we noted in Tuesday’s NightCap that, if the market extended higher, we would expect the downward sloping 20 day SMA to act as resistance.  If you look at the SPY, this is exactly where the market stopped in early trading on Wednesday and then proceeded to pullback sharply.  While all the major indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished higher in today’s trading, the market looks vulnerable to more downside in the coming days-weeks. Leading sectors in today’s trading was Transportation (IYT), Technology (XLK), and HealthCare (XLV) while the Utilities (XLU) and Retail…

Merger Monday doesn’t help market

Index & Sector performance 11/17/14 The Market: Despite a very active M&A session, it was yet another very tight trading range in the S&P 500 while the NASDAQ (QQQ) lagged and the Russell 2000 (IWM) led to the downside. In deals we saw Allergan (AGN) agree to be acquired by Actavis (ACT) for a combination of cash and ACT stock which totaled $219 per share.  Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) who had also been trying to buy AGN stepped aside not feeling comfortable they could justify the valuation to shareholders.  Two more big names in M&A news as Halliburton (HAL) announced it…

Market lower & Energy higher on week

Index & Sector performance 6/13/14 The Market: After logging a close outside of the Weekly (20, 2, -2) Bollinger Bands in the S&P 500 last week, the S&P 500 finished this week slightly lower.  As we noted last week when it happened, this is a noteworthy event to track in our opinion because it has led to multi-week/month counter trend moves and remains one reason we continue to cautious on the broad market at this time. While most of the sectors from the WSC Scoreboard finished the trading session higher, it was again Energy (XLE) leading the charge closing up nearly…

Analyst Comments

Since breaking out of a trading range back in October 2013, Alcoa (AA) has been a strong performer gaining over 50%.  With the stock trading around $9.24, Goldman Sachs upgraded AA to Buy with an $11 price target on 11/25/13 and later upped that target to $12 which AA reached in less than 2 months. This action has prompted Goldman Sachs to review AA again and instead of going to a Neutral, they are upping their price target once again this time to $15. We agree with Goldman that it appears AA has more left in the tank but it…

Analyst Comments

If you see a symbol that interests you in this list then make sure to check out the Upgrades/Downgrades section for the complete list and details! Upgrades: AGU, CLR, DECK, DELL, DUK, EV, FNSR, IGT, NI, RSANY,  TOT, VZ, WSM, WWAV Downgrades: CF, CNK, DWA, ELX, JNS, OXY, PRE, QLGC, RATE, RATE, RDS.A,  RGC, SJM, TEVA