March 29, 2024

New Year starts with a thud

Index & Sector performance 01/02/14 The Market: The first trading day of the year started in the opposite direction of 2013’s trend with the S&P 500 closing down near 17 points and essentially taking back much of the holiday drift higher that was seen. In economic data Unemployment claims came in worse than expected posting 339K vs. 334K expected.  Last week’s claims were also adjusted slightly higher to 341K from 338K.  The remaining released data either met or exceeded expectations including Manufacturing PMI, Construction Spending and ISM. In the News: Apple (AAPL) closed 1.41% (lower) amidst differing analyst opinions.  Wells…

The Taper begins…

Index & Sector performance 12/18/13 The Market: A strong day in the market with the gains all coming after the 2 pm EST FOMC report.   The S&P 500 was in a holding pattern until just before the report when it started to drop lower.  After the report there was a quick spike lower (likely on the headline of bond buying decreasing) and the S&P 500 tagged the 50 day SMA where the index then bottomed and ripped higher. From Peak to Trough the S&P 500 gained rouhgly43 points! In economic news today we saw Housing Starts handily beat expectations (1.09M…

Fed day snaps S&P 4 day win streak

Index & Sector performance 10/30/13 The Market: A small gap up on the open was quickly sold and the market pulled back but losses were relatively contained until the Fed announcement which sent the S&P spiking lower.  Buyers did then step in and used the last hour of trading to help close the index off the lows but not enough to keep from snapping the S&P 500’s 4 day win streak. In economic news, ADP Non-Farm came in lower than expected printing a 130K with 151K the expectation.  Core CPI was also light coming in at 0.1% when 0.2% was…

Market follows up gap with more gains

Index & Sector performance 9/17/13 The Market: The majority of today’s action was in the first half hour of trading when the S&P gaped slightly higher and then ran up seeing the majority of the days gains.  The remainder of the day the market was able to hold those gains and drift higher on what looked to be an overall light volume day. In economic news, Core CPI came in as expected while headline CPI  was actually less than expected with a 0.1% increase when 0.2% was expected.  Remember headline reflects food and energy while core strips it out.  Tomorrow…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +180.85 (+1.21%) to 15,176.08; S&P 500 +23.84 (+1.48%) to 1,636.36; NASDAQ +36.76 (+1.26%) to 2,962.90 An second retest of the 50 day Moving Average proved to be a spring board sending the S&P 500 screaming higher on the day and of the major indices only second to the Russell 2000.  Helping today’s cause was two positive data point in economic news.  First the retail sales rose 0.6% when consensus expectations were 0.4% and then initial Unemployment claims came in at 334K when I had 354K as the estimate or a 20K beat.  What I am watching now is the 20 day SMA…

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…

Week in Review

DJIA  -35.71 (-0.27%) to 13,135.01;  S&P 500  -5.87 (-0.41%) to 1,413.58; NASDAQ  -20.83 (-0.70%) to 2,971.33; Friday’s action was red across the board and it was never in doubt.  The downside was lead by the tech and inside tech the leader down was Apple Computers (AAPL) and names inside the AAPL universe.  We had a small amount of economic data today but nothing that would have been able to or did change the course.  The bias was clearly to go home today flat or short but not long as we saw the selling pick up after 2pm as traders have…

Daily Wrap

DJIA  -2.99 (-0.02%) to 13,245.45; S&P 500  +0.64 (+0.04%) to 1,428.48; NASDAQ  -8.49 (-0.28%) to 3,013.81; Today we started with a gap higher which consolidated in an orderly fashion until just after noon when we had the release of the Fed data.  The market broke to new highs for the day but then started to give back some of the gains around 2 and then steadily trended lower the last hour finally closing just up for the day after spending a few minutes negative.  This would be a classic, buy the rumor and sell the news type action.  Even sometimes…

Daily Wrap

While the markets were open today, the volume clearly lends to be a “holiday” style trading session with the SPDRs SPY not reaching 100M shares traded.  While overall a lack-luster day, the S&P limped higher by $0.18 to 1380.03 while the Nasdaq & Dow closed lower $0.62 to 2904.26 and $0.31 to 12815.08 respectively. Giving us a feel of the Bull market days we had an old school “merger Monday” with 2 well known names going out including Jefferies (JEF) closing up over 14% on a takeover by Leucadia National (LUK) and Titanium Metals (TIE) gained over 40% after receiving…