Volatility & Chop continues
The Market: Volatility continues to be the name of the game which is why you can have a 40+ point day like today and still have the S&P 500 within a range/wedge. While it is possible that we extend today’s rally by gaping higher tomorrow, it is not our expectation and if we do open higher tomorrow we would watch the downward sloping 20 day SMA as resistance. Overall, a light Economic Calendar this week Thursday and Friday having the most significant data points (Unemployment Claims, PPI, and Consumer Sentiment). Reported EPS 9/8/15 After the Close: …
Watch out for traps
Index & Sector performance 12/9/14 The Market: The S&P 500 found itself down over 20 points within the first hour plus of trading as traders pointed to concerns over China and Greece. Throughout the early drop the Russell 2000 (IWM) remained strong down only a fraction of the other indices and then was the first to turn positive on the day. The IWM’s resilience continued throughout the remainder of the trading session and finished the clear leader. Today’s action certainly feels like another Bear trap where the market looks as though it is about to start a major prolonged slide…
Energy heads lower in mixed session
Index & Sector performance 9/8/14 The Market: Overall another low volume mixed session which saw the S&P 500 (SPY) and Dow (DIA) close slightly lower while the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) finished slightly higher. On the WSC Scoreboard the Energy sector (XLE) sticks out finishing the session down 1.56%. After strong moves we like to see what stocks bucked the trend in the sector and one notable outperformer today was Valero (VLO) which finished the session up 0.96%. Not much Economic data to start the week but finishes strong with Unemployment Claims Thursday followed by Retail Sales and…
Higher inflation ahead of Fed
Index & Sector performance 6/17/14 The Market: In today’s Economic news, CPI came in higher than expected while the Building Permits and Housing Starts were below estimates. The initial reaction off this data sent the S&P 500 futures trading lower but ultimately the index bottomed before the open and continued higher the remainder of the day. Checking the WSC scoreboard the Russell 2000 led the charge while the other indices closed flat or slightly higher. In individual sectors, the Financials (XLF) posting a 1.02% gain and the Retailers (XRT) finishing up 0.87% were the strongest groups. In the Financials, MetLife…
Fed open to scale back causes pullback
Index & Sector performance 11/20/13 The Market: Initial optimism on better than expected economic data pre-market saw early selling as the S&P pulled off the highs of the day in the first hour of trading and then the market meandered waiting for the Fed minutes to be released. After the 2pm EST announcement the market began selling off as the Fed showed they are prepared to scale back on the rate of asset purchases. The S&P 500 was able to use late trading to close a few points off the lows of the day. In economic data, Core CPI came…
Shhh, Jobs data tomorrow
The Market: Not much in the way of action today as early gains met resistance in the previously highlighted areas around 1660-1663 which coincided with the 20 & 50 day SMA’s respectively. Utilities again were the under performer of the tracked sectors and retail sector leading on the upside with Sears (SHLD) and JC Penny (JCP) putting in strong showing with gains of 6.27% and 5.33%. Doesn’t it feel like all JCP needed was some big investor to bail to bottom? Today had a great deal of economic data including ISM Non-Man PMI which came in better than expected (as…
Daily Wrap
DJIA +82.71 (+0.64%) to 13,034.49; S&P 500 +2.23 (+0.16%) to 1,409.28; NASDAQ -22.99 (-0.77%) to 2,973.70; Today’s action was somehow boring and choppy all at the same time. While we had some moves back and forth it didn’t encompass the entire day and the other times the S&P 500 showed relatively tight action. More exciting was the Dow and Nasdaq which had moves more that 4 times the S&P although both closed within 1% of the previous day’s close. Weighing on the Nasdaq today was Apple Computers (AAPL). More trading than news drove today’s action. I even saw a note…