March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: The market continues to grind higher with the Russell 2000 (IWM) trying to play catch-up of late. Energy (XLE) led all sectors in today’s trading, again, and has been one of the hottest sectors of late although still down nearly -10% YTD. A relatively big data week with ISM Monday, Fed speak & ADP tomorrow, Unemployment Claims Thursday, and official Jobs data on Friday.  Traders concerned about the Fed and if we will see a December rate hike should be paying attention to this week’s data.       Reported EPS 11/3/15 After the Close:   Reporting EPS…

XLU stands out in today’s action

Index & Sector performance 2/18/15 The Market: A choppy session overall which ended up finishing flat.  Some negative divergence is building on the S&P 500 60 minute chart but, even when it leads to a pullback, the divergence can exist for many day.  We wouldn’t be surprised to see the index continue to meander and drift higher for the remainder of the week into Options expiration. In individual sectors it was the Utilities (XLU) leading the way and by a wide margin finishing up 2.37%.  We would be watching the XLU closely here to see if it can build on…

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…

Global economic growth concerns weigh on market

Index & Sector performance 11/4/14 The Market: Today’s session ultimately finished narrowly lower with the Dow (DIA) managing to close ever so slightly higher.  Midday the damage was worse as traders pointed to the European Commissions cutting growth and inflation forecasts but after the European exchanges closed the U.S. found a bottom and drifted higher into the close. In individual sectors it was again Energy (XLE) which led the way lower finishing down 2.06% as crude oil traded as low as $75.84/ barrel after Saudi Arabia announced it was cutting prices on oil exports to the U.S.  Traders are cautious…

Quiet start to the month

Index & Sector performance 11/3/14 The Market: The market started the day slightly higher building on last week’s extremely strong session but the market ran out of steam in the short term and the S&P 500 started pulling back in afternoon trading finishing flat on the session.  All in all it was a low volume quiet session but the Bulls can point to the fact that they didn’t give ground after reaching new highs. We do not expect the remainder of the month to be as quiet as today and would plan for swings in both directions much like October…

Down but much better than the start

Index & Sector performance 9/29/14 The Market: All 4 broad market indices closed lower however all also closed well off their lows of the session. The standout sector in today’s trading is clearly the Utilities (XLU) which finished up 0.65% and is currently in 4th place amongst the WSC Scoreboard sectors for largest YTD gain.  The biggest laggard was Consumer Discretionary (XLY) followed by Materials (XLB). In Economic data, Pending Home Sales was a big disappointment coming in at -1% when -0.4% was expected while last months reading was adjusted slightly lower to 3.2% from 3.3%.     Reporting EPS…

Financials lead strong session

Index & Sector performance 9/18/14 The Market: Fairly broad rally across all the WSC Scoreboard indices.  Interesting that the Guggenheim equal weight S&P 500 index (RSP) noticeably underperformed the S&P 500 (SPY) showing that the rally was not as much broad based and instead focused in the higher weighted industries & stocks. In individual sectors it was the Financials (XLF) that led all sectors on the WSC Scoreboard finishing the session up 0.98%.  As would be expected the rally was broad throughout the components but highlighted by Citigroup (C) and Prudential (PRU) which finished the session up 2.42% and 2.35%…

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…

3 strong days higher

Index & Sector performance 4/1/14 The Market: Today’s early action targeted our highlighted region from last night’s update of $1875ES and then pulled back to support near $1870ES.  Later in the day the market made another rally toward and pressed through $1875ES and now resides above in the after hours session.  While we are starting to see some intraday negative divergences develop on the market which provide some caution to the recent strong 3 day rally, we fully expect the S&P 500 emini to challenge the highlighted resistance region of $1884-90ES in overnight or early morning trading.  From there we…