China, Icahn, & IBB lead market lower
The Market: A gap-and-go day to the downside as the S&P 500 finished nearly 50 points lower on the session as media pointed to renewed concerns over China’s economy and cautious comments from Carl Icahn on high yield bonds and the stock market. The Dow (DIA) was the relative outperformer today finishing down only -1.9% while the NASDAQ (QQQ) finished down the most at -2.85% on the session but YTD that is reversed with the DIA down slightly over –10% while the QQQ is only down slightly over -3%. Short-term the market appears to be very oversold here and we…
QQQ & IWM reach new highs
Index & Sector performance 2/26/15 The Market: More churn today in the markets but again the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) showed more strength than the S&P 500 (SPY) with the QQQ and IWM reaching new 52-week closing highs on the session. Crude oil lost over 5% today which helped send the Energy (XLE) sector 1.88% lower. We noted in our 2/18/15 nightly recap when the XLE was trading above $81 that we would look for a pullback toward $78 as a buying opportunity. Closing today at $79.35, we would ideally like to see lower levels before dipping into…
Low vol drift higher
Index & Sector performance 12/3/14 The Market: Another low volume drift higher today which saw the Russell 2000 (IWM) lead and the NASDAQ (QQQ) lag even spending some time down on the session. In individual sectors, Consumer Staples (XLP) and Utilities (XLU) were the only two from the WSC Scoreboard to finish lower which Materials (XLB), Industrials (XLI), and Energy (XLE) finished up over 1%. One name helping materials have such a strong session was LyondellBasell (LYB) which has been down significantly since September but finished today up over 2% and was up more than 3% intraday. LYB is a…
S&P showing signs of indecision
Index & Sector performance 11/13/14 The Market: The NASDAQ (QQQ) led today’s trading while the Russell 2000 (IWM) was the clear laggard. The S&P 500 (SPY) is refusing to break with the exception of very small sharp pullbacks which are short lived. Volume over the past two days remains light although is an uptick from earlier in the week. We view the current action as indecision as the SPY wrestles with price discovery and ultimately expect lower levels to be seen. Energy (XLE) led the WSC Scoreboard sectors lower giving back some of the recent hard fought gains but did…
Fed gains quickly given back
Index & Sector performance 10/9/14 The Market: All the gains saw from yesterday’s Fed driven rally were taken back in today’s trading with the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY) closing down nearly 2% while the Russell 2000 (IWM) lost 2.7%. The NASDAQ (QQQ) was helped by Apple (APPL) which managed to post a small gain of 0.22% on the session but the QQQ’s still finsihed 1.62% lower. Some big numbers put up across the sectors led by Energy (XLE) which finished down 3.67% and is now over 4% lower on the year. The XLE underperforming is not new but…
Early momentum fades
Index & Sector performance 8/11/14 The Market: Stocks started off the day building on Friday’s gains but near midday the S&P 500 topped out and then spent the rest of the day moving lower. All 4 indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished the day higher but the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) were the clear winners with the IWM gaining nearly 1%. The leading sector on the day was the Consumer Staples (XLP) but the stock in the index that stood out the most was to the downside and that is Dean Foods (DF). DF finished the day down…
Early pop leads to late day drop
Index & Sector performance 3/11/14 The Market: The market rallied pre-market into the open, pulled back and went again but was unable to break through a pivot confluence resistance area. The pullback into the noon EST period started to consolidate but the MACD was telling that more downside was likely. As we reached the 2-2:30 pm EST time frame the S&P again started to weaken and broke to fresh lows for the day. We will be watching for $1860ES and then further $1850ES for support levels. On the S&P500 cash index the 20 day SMA comes in around $1853. In…
The Calm before Jobs data storm?
Index & Sector performance 1/9/14 The Market: A mixed consolidation day in S&P 500 saw the futures up in the pre-market only to sell off at the open. That sell off persisted until 11am EST losing roughly 15 S&P points from the pre-market highs and then the S&P bottomed and staged a rally which didn’t make it back to the pre-market highs but did take back more than half of what was lost. In Economic data today, Unemployment claims came in better than expected posting a 330K number when 337K was expected but the previous week was revised about 6K…
New Year starts with a thud
Index & Sector performance 01/02/14 The Market: The first trading day of the year started in the opposite direction of 2013’s trend with the S&P 500 closing down near 17 points and essentially taking back much of the holiday drift higher that was seen. In economic data Unemployment claims came in worse than expected posting 339K vs. 334K expected. Last week’s claims were also adjusted slightly higher to 341K from 338K. The remaining released data either met or exceeded expectations including Manufacturing PMI, Construction Spending and ISM. In the News: Apple (AAPL) closed 1.41% (lower) amidst differing analyst opinions. Wells…
A low volume flat session
Index & Sector performance 11/25/13 The Market: Monday’s trading started with some optimism but that was sold in early trading and the market started climbing back toward the highs of the day after a pullback. The rally efforts topped around 2:30 pm EST and the market then declined into the close but after the dust settled it was a flat day. Again volumes were on the light side. Today’s economic calendar was light with only Pending Home Sales on the docket and came in worse than expected posting a -0.6% when 2.2% was expected. Tomorrow we get more housing data…