Indices take back losses plus
Index & Sector performance 5/22/14 The Market: Overall today was a quiet day in the market which saw green across the entire WSC Scoreboard with the Dow and NASDAQ leading the charge followed closely by the S&P and finally the Russell 2000 which is getting use to lagging. At 2pm EDT the FOMC minutes were released and discussed risks to the economy including U.S. housing, the Russia-Ukraine situation, and China’s economic slow down but this news did not appear to bother traders. Tomorrow is be the biggest economic data day of the week which includes Unemployment Claims and Existing Home…
Low volume rally led by Russell 2K
Index & Sector performance 5/20/14 The Market: An overall light volume day was led to the upside by the Russell 2000 followed by the NASDAQ 100. In individual sectors, Utilities (XLU) led to the downside followed by the Consumer Staples (XLP) while the transportation index was the largest gainer with components Matson (MATX) and JetBlue (JBLU) up the most gaining 3.05% and 2.42% respectively. MATX and JBLU both appear to be viable long trade candidates going forward. This is an extremely quiet Economic data week with a lot of Fed speak. Earnings will play a role for individual stocks so…
GDP disappoints but market ignores
Index & Sector performance 4/30/14 The Market: As you can see in the table below, the U.S. Q1 GDP number came in well below expectations. While Q1 was not expected to be a high growth quarter, clearly analysts did not expect a near negative number. Certainly the colder than expected weather could have and likely did play a role but on our opinion you cannot completely blame a miss like this on the weather. So why might traders and investors be willing to look past this data besides the weather? Possibly because a number like this allows the Fed to…
Market starts on Tryptophan
Index & Sector performance 12/2/13 The Market: Overall not a very active day in this first full trading session after the Thanksgiving holiday and to start December. Today’s action started with an early dip that was quickly bought and started to rally higher until 12:30 pm EST. That is where the rally lost steam and started a descent back down toward the earlier lows. The market reached and went through those lows finally closing at $1800 in the S&P 500. It is unclear if this slow start to the month is about to start a slide or if it is…
Fed open to scale back causes pullback
Index & Sector performance 11/20/13 The Market: Initial optimism on better than expected economic data pre-market saw early selling as the S&P pulled off the highs of the day in the first hour of trading and then the market meandered waiting for the Fed minutes to be released. After the 2pm EST announcement the market began selling off as the Fed showed they are prepared to scale back on the rate of asset purchases. The S&P 500 was able to use late trading to close a few points off the lows of the day. In economic data, Core CPI came…
Icahn comments spark late day sell off
Index & Sector performance 11/18/13 The Market: It was a fairly quiet day in the markets until a comment from Carl Icahn appears to have started a late day sell off after noting that he could see the markets have a “big drop”. This sent the S&P 500 down roughly 12 points in the final hour of trading In economic date the NAHB Housing Market Index fell slightly short of estimates posting a 54 when 56 was expected. Today also some a mix of Fed speak and that continues tomorrow including Fed Chairman Bernanke at 7pm EST and President Obama…
Daily Wrap
The markets started today with another gap down and twice tried to rally and failed. he first rally started roughly around noon and continued until the Fed minutes were announced which then sent the S&P tumbling quickly to new lows for the day but that dip was bought and in a volatile hour was not only higher but positive on the day. As soon as the gains were had they were lost and the final hour of trading again sent shares lower closing above but near the lows of the day. In economic date we had existing home sales come…
Daily Wrap
DJIA -70.73 (-0.47%) to 15,010.74;S&P 500 -9.77 (-0.59%) to 1,646.06;NASDAQ -13.69 (-0.38%) to 3,589.09 The S&P 500 started today with a gap lower but quickly rallied to not only retake the early losses but move into positive territory for the day. Then around 10:30 am EST the market started to roll and spent the remainder of the day under pressure and ultimately ended up closing below the 50 day SMA. No economic data to report and this is a light econ data week, at least for the US. Apple (AAPL) was able to buck the broad market’s downward trend and close slightly higher…
Daily Wrap
DJIA -19.12 (-0.12%) to 15,335.28; S&P 500 -1.18 (-0.07%) to 1,666.29; NASDAQ -7.99 (-0.26%) to 3,020.97 Today the market somewhat consolidated after its ramp into options expiration last Friday. Initially it looked as though it could be another strong move higher as early trading was choppy but then we spiked higher into the noon EST time. That spike was eventually lost and we ultimately close near flat on the day. It was interesting to see the Russell 2000 be the strongest index and only one to close higher. Small caps leading might bode well for ultimately higher prices. Tomorrow is Tuesday and interestingly…
Week in Review
DJIA -0.08 (0.00%) to 14,865.06; S&P 500 -4.52 (-0.28%) to 1,588.85; NASDAQ -2.59 (-0.09%) to 2,856.48 Friday started with a small gap down that wasn’t greeted with the usual snap up buying and this helped lay the ground work for an early morning swoon taking the S&P 500 down over 10 points from Thursday’s close. Right around 11am EST the S&P bottomed and for the remainder of the day was able to grind higher leaving a relatively small loss for the day (the Dow nearly closed positive). This type of action is not uncommon at stretched levels as well as when there is…