March 19, 2024

Market push and pull continues

The Market: With concerns over volatility in China, weak Economic data, and the FOMC statement, the market gapped down and continued lower throughout the early trading session before marking another big intraday reversal.  After dipping below the 200 day SMA, the S&P managed to rally from over 25 points down to slightly up on the session in intraday trading but then couldn’t hold the gains and sold off into the close. Today’s action is actually a good micro representation of the push and pull in the market this year. As we noted last week, we expect volatility to continue and…

Weak Data & Earnings help drive stocks lower

Index & Sector performance 1/27/15 The Market: While the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY) finished down over 1%, it was the NASDAQ (QQQ) which led the session to the downside finishing 2.59% lower.  Microsoft (MSFT) was the biggest drain on the QQQ as it finished down 9.25% after a disappointing EPS report and even managed to pull down Apple (AAPL) which finished 3.5% lower on the session.  Things may look a little better for the tech sector tomorrow as AAPL is up after hours after reporting EPS. The Russell 2000 (IWM) managed to be the relative winner finishing down…

EPS helped shrug off bad overseas data

Index & Sector performance 11/20/14 The Market: It doesn’t look like the S&P 500 (SPY) had a strong session but considering the futures were down roughly 10 points pre-market reportedly due to weak data out of Europe and China, to finish up a few points is a strong showing.  Yesterday’s laggard was today’s leader as the Russell 2000 (IWM ) finished up over 1% clawing back most of yesterday’s losses and the Dow (DIA) was helped by Intel (INTC) which gained 4.66% after announcing a dividend hike and solid 2015 expected revenue growth. In individual sectors, Retail (XRT) led today…

S&P 500 makes new closing highs

Index & Sector performance 8/20/14 The Market: A respectable session for the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY) as the SPY finished at a new closing high and the DIA is not all that far off.  The NASDAQ (QQQ) managed to finish slightly up on the session and while not as strong as the DIA or SPY, the QQQ has been the clear leader on the year.  The Russell 2000 (IWM) continues to lag and was unable to finish the session higher like the other broad indices however the index did manage to rally well off the earlier lows. In…

Indices take back losses plus

Index & Sector performance 5/22/14 The Market: Overall today was a quiet day in the market which saw green across the entire WSC Scoreboard with the Dow and NASDAQ leading the charge followed closely by the S&P and finally the Russell 2000 which is getting use to lagging.  At 2pm EDT the FOMC minutes were released and discussed risks to the economy including U.S. housing, the Russia-Ukraine situation, and China’s economic slow down but this news did not appear to bother traders. Tomorrow is be the biggest economic data day of the week which includes Unemployment Claims and Existing Home…

S&P finds support at 20 day SMA

Index & Sector performance 3/12/14 The Market: Overnight trading took the S&P 500 futures index down to our target region of $1857-50 with the low of the session printing $1853.75ES right near the open which correlated with the S&P 500 cash index touching the 20 day SMA.  From there we bounced and then spend the rest of the day consolidating in a flag which has broken to the upside in after hours but with not much gusto.  Until the index clears the $1870-72.50ES area we will consider the potential for more downside. Tomorrow is the heaviest day of the week…

Choppy session ahead of Jobs

Index & Sector performance 3/6/14 The Market: Overall today was a choppy session which started with an overnight breakout which couldn’t gain steam and retraced back to the breakout levels in early morning trading.  The market then found a bottom and rallied to the 1880ES pivot which acted as resistance twice finally sending the index back down toward the original breakout region in late day trading. We expect the choppy trading to continue until the Non-Farm payroll number tomorrow at 8:30am EST.  We have consensus estimates currently at 151K with an Unemployment number of 6.6%.  Below is a recap of…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +5.22 (+0.04%) to 14,455.28; S&P 500 +2.04 (+0.13%) to 1,554.52; NASDAQ +2.80 (+0.09%) to 3,245.12 Early trading in the S&P was slightly lower but after noon EST made a move into the green and remained there for the remainder of the day.  Today was very reminiscent of the rally in general showing a strong sense of resilience and using any dips as buying opportunities.  If I had to point to something of worry it would likely be some of the volume which seems to be getting lighter in the index ETFs like the SPY.  Also the recent trading has left some indecision…