April 26, 2024

Tech and HealthCare EPS lead

Index & Sector performance 7/23/14 The Market: Today the stand out index was the NASDAQ (QQQ) which finished 0.64% higher with a lot of help from Apple (AAPL) which finished the day up 2.61% after reporting EPS yesterday after the close.  The S&P 500 (SPY) and Russell 2000 (IWM) were relatively flat, while the Dow (DIA) was the clear laggard and the only index to finish down on the session.  Weighing on the Dow was Boeing (BA) and Caterpillar (CAT) which finished down 2.34% and 1.53% respectively. In individual sectors it was HealthCare (XLV) which shined helped immensely by Intuitive…

Tech stocks lead sell-off

Index & Sector performance 5/6/14 The Market: Last night we noted 1872ES as a key level to watch.  If it held as overnight support then the index could look to target Friday’s 1886ES highs but if lost then we could see Monday’s lows of 1860.50ES tested and then 1850ES.   In overnight trading the S&P was only able to reach 1881.50ES falling short of Friday’s highs and by the open the futures were sitting at our key 1872ES level.  After some initial jostling around the 1872ES level, the index started to roll over in midday trading reaching as low as…

S&P takes back overnight losses plus

Index & Sector performance 5/5/14 The Market: The S&P futures moved lower in the Sunday overnight session attributed to weak economic data out of China as well continued unrest in Ukraine.  The futures continued lower throughout early trading Monday but found a bottom right at the open on an initial spike lower to 1860.50ES which was quickly bought and the index started a march higher reaching 1880ES by 2:30 pm ET.  The index spent the last hour consolidating the near 20 point intraday rally.  If 1872ES holds in overnight trading it appears the index could look to make a move…

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…

S&P Futures play MA pinball

Index & Sector performance 12/16/13 The Market: The made strong gains today after what looked like a horrible start to the week.  In overnight trading Sunday the S&P 500 dropped t0 $1754 (March 2014 emini contract) tagging the 50 day SMA and then built a rally off that support.  Surprisingly by the morning the futures had not only regained everything that was lost from Sunday evening’s open but also but in some gains.  Those who do not look at the futures may have never even known of the rough start.  The futures then rallied pre-market to the 20 day SMA…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +130.63 (+0.89%) to 14,831.58; S&P 500 +14.89 (+0.94%) to 1,597.59; NASDAQ +37.79 (+1.32%) to 2,911.14 Today was another one of those small gap and run days where the market drifted higher the entire day.  There is not much else to say except it seems as though the market was happy to rally on today’s better than expected Unemployment Claims but the focus will quickly flip to the Non-Farm Employment Change numbers.  I have estimates at 155K and remember last report came in at 88K. In economic news today, Unemployment Claims came in at their lowest levels in over 5 years and well below analysts expectations. …