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…

Can EPS decouple market from Oil?

Index & Sector performance 1/12/15 The Market: We noted in the Thursday end-of-day write-up that the strong gains had to do with positive comments from Mario Draghi as well as Oil prices managing to stabilize for the second straight session.  Unfortunately after managing to hold in Friday,  Oil prices resumed their recent slide today finishing below $46/per barrel.  As we have noted in other write-ups and you can see elsewhere, Oil’s sharp decline brings in concern over global growth and particularly U.S. earnings.  Speaking of earnings, Aloca (AA) is scheduled to kick off the earnings season tonight and below you…

FOMC rate decision highlights big data week

Index & Sector performance 9/15/14 The Market: The Dow (DIA) was the only index on the WSC Scoreboard to finish higher on the session while the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) took a hit losing 0.97% and 1.15% respectively.  Baring any unforeseen news, we would not be surprised to see the markets get quiet until the FOMC rate decision and Statement later in the trading day Wednesday. In individual sectors, Retail (XRT) was the biggest loser on the session finishing down nearly 1% and remains the laggard on the year.  On the upside, Energy (XLE) started off strong after…

S&P on 5 day win streak

Index & Sector performance 4/21/14   The Market: The S&P 500 has been on an impressive  5 day winning streak but much like the “V” bottom we say back in February this year, this rally is coming on lower than average volume with today being by far the lowest in the S&P 500 sector ETF “SPY”. We stated in our 4/14 write-up that we would not be surprised to see the market used short term oversold levels and the shortened holiday Op-Ex week to rally.  The question now is as traders get back to the desk in both the U.S….

Rampant optimism spikes the market

Index & Sector performance 10/10/13 The Market: In case you were under a rock today.  The market exploded to the upside.  The move seemed help by some uncertainty being out of the way including the past news that Janey Yellen would be the new Fed chair and confirmation from the FOMC minutes that tapering will not likely start until the end of the year (or later).  To add on there was optimism out of Washington about a debt deal. In economic news, Unemployment claims came in far worse than expected posting a 374K when 307K was expected.  The reason the…

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…