March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: Overall a dull session as the markets remainder in a tight range for the entire day but we expect to see volatility in many individual names as this will be a very active earnings week with many big names reporting.  As always we will highlight the names that reported after the close as well as those scheduled to report pre-market tomorrow but please remember that you can often  look ahead a few days under the Events Calendar section. If an active earnings wasn’t enough, we also have an active Economic Calendar with the FOMC Statement and Rate decision…

Volatility & Chop continues

The Market: Volatility continues to be the name of the game which is why you can have a 40+ point day like today and still have the S&P 500 within a range/wedge.  While it is possible that we extend today’s rally by gaping higher tomorrow, it is not our expectation and if we do open higher tomorrow we would watch the downward sloping 20 day SMA as resistance. Overall, a light Economic Calendar this week Thursday and Friday having the most significant data points (Unemployment Claims, PPI, and Consumer Sentiment).       Reported EPS 9/8/15 After the Close:  …

Huge intraday swings

The Market: As expected, volatility continues and while we would not expect 100 point S&P days to become a common occurrence we do expect to see sharp swings both up and down. Our current expectation is that the market will ultimately revisit this morning’s lows is not make new lows but in the short-term the market is very oversold and should stage some sort of rally — not just intraday like today but on a closing basis over a few days.  That rally will be very telling and if weak we could be setting up for much much lower and…

Small Caps lag as market rallies

Index & Sector performance 3/16/15 The Market: A strong performance day as the S&P 500 (SPY), Dow (DIA), and NASDAQ (QQQ) finished up over 1% while the Russell 2000 (IWM) was the laggard finishing up 0.60%.  One of the positive noted on this recent decline in the broad markets was the resilience of the IWM which is close to a new all-time high.  Today could just be the other broad indices catching up to the already outperforming IWM but we cannot help but feel as though today was a perfect set-up for the IWM to lead all names higher and…

Market churns while XLU heads lower

Index & Sector performance 2/25/15 The Market: Another day of churn as the market continues to grind with an upward bias.  As we posted over at StockTwits we are starting to see a lot of negative divergence setting up on the MACD.  Divergence is not a trigger itself but is showing signs that each move higher comes with less momentum and excitement. Utilities (XLU) was the leader to the downside and a name we recently posted about in the Charts section.   After seeing a lot of people bullish on the name, we laid the road map we felt the Bulls…

S&P rejected @ 50 DSMA

Index & Sector performance 10/6/14 The Market: The markets start the session in positive territory but the S&P 500 (SPY) quickly ran into resistance at the 50 day SMA and spent the remainder of the day pulling back.  The laggard on the session was the Russell 2000 (IWM) which was the first to go negative on the session finishing down 0.86%  Today’s high in the SPY now becomes a key level to watch along with the 50 day SMA and downward sloping 20 day MA.  This could end up being a choppy trading week. In individual sectors, Transportation (IYT) was…

Indices build on week’s gains

Index & Sector performance 8/14/14 The Market: A good up day as all 4 broad indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished the day higher and the Russell 2000 (IWM) is now only X% down on the year.  The concern with this week’s bounce has been and remains to be the declining volume as we continue higher.  However, until the market turns lower and begins taking out support, traders must respect the price action. In individual sectors, leading was HealthCare (XLV) which finished the day up 1.18% continuing to build on the strong week followed closely by yesterday’s laggard, Retail (XRT) which…

Retail sales beat, Unemployment drags

Index & Sector performance 12/12/13 The Market: The market continued picked up where it left losing more ground but not as dramatic as the 1% down yesterday.  The majority of the losses where in the beginning part of the day with the market making the lows for the day around 12:30 pm EST and starting to rally.  That rally halted around 3pm EST and the market used the last hour to sell off not quite making it back to the midday lows. In economic data, Retail Sales number beat expectations and with Core Sales doubling expectations posting a 0.4% and…

ECB moved & so did the markets

Index & Sector performance 11/7/13 The Market: The S&P 500 spiked higher around 8am EST time after the ECB announced a rate cut.  This move was further helped by a strong Q3 GDP number.  While we opened off the pre-market highs, the real selling began after the bells.  After each move lower the market tried to stage a rally but all were sold.  The S&P 500 closed right at the 20 day SMA  From peak to trough using the S&P futures we saw a near 30 point swing to the downside. In economic news, GDP came in much stronger than…

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…