March 29, 2024

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…

Argentina default rattles global markets

Index & Sector performance 7/31/14 The Market: A sea of red today on the WSC Scoreboard with all 4 major indices closing strongly lower led by the Russell 2000 (IWM).  Major media outlets pointed to weakness overnight in International markets caused by Argentina’s default. Looking at the technicals, the S&P 500 (SPY) and the Dow (DIA) both clearly lost their 50 day moving averages on a closing basis and did so on an increase in volume.  The NASDAQ (QQQ), which has been this year’s strongest performer, is still a few percent above the 50’s while the Russell 2000 (IWM) has…

Do you buy the dip?

Index & Sector performance 1/28/14 The Market: In the overnight session the futures managed to recover gaining nearly 20 points from Monday’s lows.  When the Durables number was announced and came in much worse than expected the market puled back challenging support but that support held and by the open the market was back near the pre-market highs.  The remainder of the day the S&P 500 stayed in a relatively tight trading range with all of the major indices closing higher. In Economic news the Durable Goods numbers came in much worse than expected with Core Durable Goods Orders posting…

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…

Today the quiet before the storm?

Index & Sector performance 10/31/13 The Market: Second straight down day for the S&P 500.  The day was slightly more active than the closing prices might suggest as a very early up open was quickly sold down to the 1756 levels where the market bottomed around 10:30am EST and then rallied to 1768 by 2:30 pm EST.  What took almost all day to gain was then lost in that last hour of trading with the S&P closing back near the earlier lows for the day at 1756.  What needs to be seen is if this relatively quiet day is the…

S&P 500 narrowly escapes with a gain

Index & Sector performance 10/9/13 The Market: Rumors out of Washington have helped drive the indices of late as investors are looking for more information regarding the government shutdown as well as who may be replacing Ben Bernanke.  News today broke that Janet Yellen will be the next Federal Reserve chairperson taking the place of Ben Bernanke at the end of January 2014.  Initial opinions seemed to be that Yellen will continue on with a more dovish stance for the Fed. Today looked as though the market could not gain traction but at 11:30 am EST the market bottomed and…

US Government shuts down and gains open up

Index & Sector performance 10/01/13 The Market: The old market adage Buy the rumor and Sell the news is somewhat in affect here today with the markets reaction to the Government shutdown.  As we noted in last night’s Game Plan, with the realization of the shutdown now in affect and the worry of the shutdown gone, short term longs would look for opportunity to trade a bounce.  A gap up was quickly consolidated after roughly 30 minutes of trading and then pressed higher until 12:30 pm EST. After 12:30 there was a roll over which took the index down until…

Week in Review

DJIA +149.21 (+1.08%) to 14,009.79; S&P 500 +15.06 (+1.01%) to 1,513.17; NASDAQ +36.97 (+1.18%) to 3,179.10 I have been looking and highlighting a pattern that seemed to be begging for higher prices in the short term and why the stance has been that while ultimately I would like to see a broader pullback/correction to provide the markets a better base to then press higher from again, in the short term it felt that every dip was an opportunity for a long trade.  Friday’s action now for me has brought the S&P 500 into the levels I was looking for and…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +72.49 (+0.52%) to 13,954.42; S&P 500 +7.66 (+0.51%) to 1,507.84; NASDAQ -0.64 (-0.02%) to 3,153.66 Early morning trading saw the S&P 500 futures down and sitting on the R1 pivot.  The pivot held and we started to rally until 10 am and the Consumer Confidence number came in cooler than expected.  The market started giving back earlier gains but quickly reverse and started to continue its climb finally closing up over 7 points but if you look at the futures, the S&P rallied from its lows around 7am EST to the close roughly 14 points. Stock of the day…

Daily Wrap

DJIA –14.05 (-0.10%) to 13,881.93; S&P 500 -2.78 (-0.18%) to 1,500.18; NASDAQ +4.59 (+0.15%) to 3,154.30 I had to blink twice and rub my eyes but it was true that the S&P 500 closed lower.  The Dow followed suit but AAPL finally having an up day helped the Nasdaq manage to eek out a small gain.  Now before we get crazy, this was a near 3 point down day on the S&P after 8 straight days of moving higher.  I have been looking for some consolidating which really hasn’t come to fruition.  Any pullbacks still look to be greater opportunities…