March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: An initial gap higher was immediately sold but an afternoon surge helped the Dow, S&P and NASDAQ finish higher while greatly paring losses in the Russell 2000.  Downside momentum seems to be waning and today’s mixed session is likely pointing to a bottom.  In all likelihood that bottom will only be short-term but we will have to see how the action takes place. Ideally, for the start of a move higher, we would like to see a gap down (or strong move lower in early trading) tomorrow which takes us near or below today’s lows which is again…

Market continues to rebound

The Market: Stocks continue to chug along after last week’s impressive reversal on Wednesday.  Today was another turn around session which saw the S&P 500 gap down roughly 12 points before firming up in very early trading and then rallying the rest of the session to finish up over 9 points.  Above 2080 in the S&P 500 and it looks like the good times can continue. HealthCare (XLV) was the leader in individual sectors finishing up 1.01% followed closely by Consumer Discretionary (XLY) which closed up 0.96%.  Today’s underperformer was Consumer Staples (XLP) which finished flat on the session hurt…

Strong start to the week led by Tech

The Market:     Reporting EPS 7/14/15 Pre-Market:   Reporting EPS 7/14/15 After the Close:   Analyst Comments:

Sellers appear on slow news day

The Market: An initial gap down in the morning found buyers but only to roughly flat on the session when the seller stepped back in and controlled the remainder of the day with all 4 of the WSC Scoreboard main indices finishing lower led by the Dow (DIA) while closed down nearly 1%. All of the WSC Scoreboard sectors were lower on the session with the largest losses realized in Transportation (IYT), Matierials (XLB) and Heath Care (XLV). Not many comments tonight but we would be cautious here.  The market looks to be oversold in the short term and due…

Market Shrugs off initial gap down

Index & Sector performance 5/28/15 The Market: Today started with a gap down but the major indices on the WSC Scoreboard were able to rally back to near flat on the session with the NASDAQ (QQQ) leading to the downside.  After two very volatile session, it appeared the market used today to take a breather.  FYI, tomorrow is the last trading day of the month. Transportation (IYT) was the clear loser on the WSC Scoreboard as it finished nearly 1% lower on the session.  We generally do not look to catch falling knifes and YTD the IYT has not been…

Revisiting December’s lows

Index & Sector performance 1/6/15 The Market: Oil appears to still be affecting the broad market and causing caution in investors as crude, which lost the psychological $50 level yesterday, traded down over $2 in today’s session. Yesterday we remarked that a gap down in the morning could be a short term trading opportunity to the long side but unfortunately we opened flat to slightly up, negative the set-up, and then continue to crawl higher in the first hour of trading before the indices began to sharply lose ground.  Today’s sharp drop eventually found support at the mid-December trading lows…

Heartfelt thank you to our Vets!!!

Index & Sector performance 11/11/14 The Market: A Heartfelt thank you goes out to all of the past, present, and future service men and women who work each day to keep us safe.  Without you, what we have and unfortunately often take for granted each and every day would not exist.  Almost zeros across the board as it was a relatively uneventful trading session.  Maybe the clearest example of how uneventful is that the entire trading day’s range on the S&P 500 was 6 points and volume was again light. As noted last night, we still view the short term…

Late rally masks tough session

Index & Sector performance 10/15/14 The Market: A very volatile session in today’s trading which saw the S&P 500 (SPY) down 3% before a sharp last hour rally helped the index only finish down 0.75%.  Without that late rally, the SPY would have been down year-to-date at the close.  As has been the case of late, the Russell 2000 (IWM) outperformed finishing the session up over 1%. The best performing sector in today’s session was Energy (XLE).  Like the SPY, the XLE was down much more earlier in the session but finished the session up 0.76% after a strong last…

Russell outperforms in ugly session

Index & Sector performance 10/13/14 The Market: Another 1+% down day across the major indices on the WSC Scoreboard except for the Russell 2000 (IWM) which finished the session down only 0.42%.  YTD the IWM is still the clear loser down 9.55% but today’s outperformance is interesting and something to watch.  IWM’s underperformance starting earlier in the year was a warning so if it begins to outperform on a consistent basis going forward it should be noted. It does not feel like very long ago when the only down sector on the WSC Scoreboard Was Retail (XRT) but now we…

Tech & Small cap trend change?

Index & Sector performance 9/3/14 The Market: While the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY) closed essentially flat, the Nasdaq (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) both finished decisively lower.  In addition the technical action in both the QQQ and IWM is concerning as both started the day gaping above the previous day’s highs to only then sell off the remainder of the day finishing below the previous day’s lows.  Those into candlestick charting will recognize this as an Engulfing pattern and can signal a change in trend. In individual sectors it the Utilities (XLU) leading the charge finishing the day…