March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: We expected to see a tight trading range until the FOMC statement but instead we saw buyers in advance of the statement as the S&P 500 (SPY) pressed higher.  The the announcement came and there was a sharp sell-off but buyers came right back and all 4 major market indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished above the pre-FOMC announcement highs. As was expected by many, the FOMC left the Fed Fund Rates unchanged but, based on the comments, it appears a rate hike is on the table for December if the data warrants.  We also saw the committee…

The NightCap

The Market: Overall it was another tight trading range session but the Russell 2000 (IWM) continued its underperformance and finished down over –1%.  It appears that traders may be on hold until the FOMC statement and rate decision tomorrow. Transportation (IYT) sector was the hardest hit on the WSC Scoreboard as the sector ETF finished down -2.65% followed by yesterday’s biggest loser, Energy (XLE), which closed down -1.2%.  The biggest gaining sector on the session was HealthCare (XLV) which finished up 1.84% and was helped by Allergan (AGN), Biogen Inc (BIIB), Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (VRTX), and Mylan NV (MYL) which all…

Triple witching tomorrrow

Index & Sector performance 12/19/13 The Market: Today trading range was rather tight after yesterday’s explosion with the entire day’s range in the S&P 500 only about 9 points.  Tomorrow will be options expiration and a Triple Witching which can come with some volatility. In economic data today we sub a much worse than expected Unemployment claims number come in at 379K when 366K was expected.  Other key data also underperformed expectations with Existing Home Sales missing expectations (4.9M vs. 5.04M) and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index (7 vs. 10.3).  Tomorrow we get GDP and Monday 12/23 we have Core PCE,…