Market rollercoaster continues
Index & Sector performance 4/1/15 The Market: For those who do not track the futures you would think that today started off with a small gap that then snowballed into something much larger but the first shot lower was actually yesterday evening when the S&P futures dropped nearly 30 points in roughly an hour. Amazingly the index recouped nearly all the losses by the open but then started to make its way back toward those overnight lows which is the action we saw today. Monday’s Wrap noted that we were looking for a pullback in the markets and that the…
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…
Farewell QE3
Index & Sector performance 10/29/14 The Market: It was a relatively quiet session the majority of the day as traders were awaiting the 2pm FOMC rate decisions and statement. As was expected, the Fed ended QE3 but continued to note that rates would remain low for a “considerable period”. The initial reaction after the release was a move lower but the market had already been trending that way since the open and, after the initial drop, buyers stepped in and ultimately the indices closed only slightly lower. It was a mixed session across the WSC Scoreboard sectors with Materials (XLB)…
Market continues higher on low volume
Index & Sector performance 8/13/14 The Market: Monday was a solid up day to follow-up on Friday’s move but one concerning aspect was how the indices finished noticeably off the intraday highs. That trend continued taking the indices lower in Tuesday’s session but the losses were contained and today it was back up as all 4 indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished higher with the NASDAQ (QQQ) leading the charge. In individual sectors there were three standouts with HealthCare (XLV) the biggest winner finishing the day up 1.21% followed by a tie for second with both the Industrials (XLI) and…
EPS should lead trading
Index & Sector performance 7/21/14 The Market: Slow start to the week saw the S&P futures down over 10 points in early trading only to rally back and finish the day relatively flat on the session. The best performer of the 4 broad indices was the NASDAQ (QQQ) but all-in-all it was a low volume relatively uneventful start to the week. With not much scheduled in terms of Economic data this week (see schedule below), eyes will be firmly fixed on the slew of earnings coming out. Below is the list of confirmed pre-market reports for 7/22/14 and the remainder…
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…
Choppy trading leaves the indices flat
Index & Sector performance 2/26/14 The Market: A choppy trading session to saw a sell off toward the open which ultimately was bought until midday when the S&P started to make its way back down toward and below the previous intraday lows. Again buyers stepped in and were able to close the S&P 500 essentially flat on the day. Companies scheduled to report earnings pre-market: Analyst Comments:
Small Caps lead move lower
Index & Sector performance 12/11/13 The Market: Strong down day in the market with the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 closing down over 1%. The Russell 2000 has been leading the charge for the year but has underperformed of late including today posting the largest loss at 1.64%. After remaining relatively unchanged in overnight and early morning trading, the market started to slip in the pre-market about an hour before the open. Losses built the remainder of the day with the S&P 500 closing near the lows of the day and through the 20 Day SMA. In economic news…
AA kicks off a new earnings season…tomorrow
Index & Sector performance 10/07/13 The Market: The markets started down strong but found early support and rallied into midday but couldn’t hold and press toward Friday’s close and instead sold off during the last hour of trading closing near the early morning slows but just slightly above. Hard to believe we are kicking off another earnings season but Alcoa (AA) will start tings off again Wednesday 10/8/13 after the close. While AA no longer has the significance it once did, it still is known for ushering in the season and many larger more impactful names will then be reporting….