March 19, 2024

Low vol drift higher

Index & Sector performance 12/3/14 The Market: Another low volume drift higher today which saw the Russell 2000 (IWM) lead and the NASDAQ (QQQ) lag even spending some time down on the session. In individual sectors, Consumer Staples (XLP) and Utilities (XLU) were the only two from the WSC Scoreboard to finish lower which Materials (XLB), Industrials (XLI), and Energy (XLE) finished up over 1%.  One name helping materials have such a strong session was LyondellBasell (LYB) which has been down significantly since September but finished today up over 2% and was up more than 3% intraday.  LYB is a…

Low volume give back after 3 solid days

Index & Sector performance 10/22/14 The Market: Today marked a give back after 3 solid days of gains.  The leader to the downside was the index that we have been watching closely for the past few weeks, the Russell 2000 (IWM).  The IWM’s underperformance throughout the year was a warning just as its outperformance near the recent bottom.  The IWM has put in work to find a bottom and start to move off the lows of last week but it is not our of the woods yet in our opinion.  First step is remaining above $107 and then the lows…

Financials lead strong session

Index & Sector performance 9/18/14 The Market: Fairly broad rally across all the WSC Scoreboard indices.  Interesting that the Guggenheim equal weight S&P 500 index (RSP) noticeably underperformed the S&P 500 (SPY) showing that the rally was not as much broad based and instead focused in the higher weighted industries & stocks. In individual sectors it was the Financials (XLF) that led all sectors on the WSC Scoreboard finishing the session up 0.98%.  As would be expected the rally was broad throughout the components but highlighted by Citigroup (C) and Prudential (PRU) which finished the session up 2.42% and 2.35%…

Retail leads low volume rally

Index & Sector performance 6/4/14 The Market: Another very light volume trading day led by the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 while the S&P 500 climbed to a new closing high. There were mixed results across the sectors but a stand out was the Retail (XRT) sector which closed up 0.76%.  Walgreen (WAG) finished up 4.19% to a new closing high on better than expected Q3 sales along with solid same-store-sales up 5.1%.  A more speculative name in retail also moving higher today was RadioShack (RSH) which closed up 8.63%.  For those looking for a speculative trade, RSH is a prime…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -21.73 (-0.16%) to 13,971.24; S&P 500 -0.92 (-0.06%) to 1,517.01; NASDAQ -1.87 (-0.06%) to 3,192.00 Today’s market held in a tight range and is reflected in the close in the S&P 500 which is down less than 1point.  This week has a fair amount of data, fed speak and some scheduled Obama talk.  I try and log it all and then update the numbers as they come out so visit the Event’s Calendar for the updates and there is also currently a dividends and splits list. The stock of the day today was Nordisk (NVO) which received an FDA Complete Response Letter indicating that the company’s insulin products will…