March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: A late day rally helped the market close well off the midday lows but all 4 major indices on the WSC Scorobard still finished down near or over 1%.  Based on the recent action, we expect to see lower levels in the short-term. In individual sectors, Retail (XRT) was the hardest hit sector on the WSC Scorboard with Priceline (PCLN) finishing down over 9% on the session after reporting EPS which beat expectations but guidance that fell short.  We will be watching Ctrip.com (CTRP) which is scheduled to report EPS tomorrow, November 10th, after the close — CTRP…

Back-to-Back big declines

The Market: WOW!  As we noted in Wednesday’s Nightcap, we expected volatility to continue and that there “seems to be a great deal of risk in the market”.  That is why we noted a move below Wednesday’s low of 2070 in the S&P 500 could trigger a sharp decline targeting 2000 in the S&P to start.  That is certainly NOT to say we expected the S&P to get there by Friday! The S&P did not make the close easy going out right at the lows evoking the fear of a strong gap lower Monday.  While a gap down Monday could…

Weak ADP data helps market gap

The Market: The market gapped and continued higher for the first hour of trading which the news attributed to a weak ADP number which could keep the Fed from raising interest rates anytime soon.  After the first hour of trading the major indices began to lose ground and, while they all finished up on the day, they were all also well off their highs. Leading on the WSC Scoreboard was Retail (XRT) which was the only sector to finish up by over 1% followed closely by Technology (XLK) which closed up 0.97%.  The only two losing sectors on the day…

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…

6 day win streak ends..new starts?

Index & Sector performance 4/23/14 The Market: Today’s session snapped a 6 day winning streak for the S&P 500 but the losses were small and maintained a very orderly structure throughout the day.  In after hours trading, the futures traded sharply higher helped by Apple’s (AAPL) earnings which beat EPS and revenue along with announcing a 7 for 1 stock split, increase in the buyback, and an 8% increase in the dividend. With tonight’s overnight action, the S&P 500 is now closing in on the all time highs .  Focus will continue to be on earnings especially with a very…