March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: Not a great start to 2016 for the Bulls but could have been much worse if not for a late end-of-day rally.   So far in after-hours trading the market has continued higher but we will need to see if these gains hold over-night as well as into early trading tomorrow. No Sector was spared in today’s trading but the XLU was the clear relative outperformer finishing down only 0.21% followed by the worst performer for 2015, XLE, finishing down 0.41%. Tomorrow is a light Economic Data session with only Vehicle Sales being reported but later in the week…

The NightCap

The Market: A lower close for all 4 main indices on the WSC Scoreboard as the Russell 2000 (IWM) led to the downside while the NASDAQ (QQQ) was the relative outperformer. The Retail (XRT) sector was the biggest loser on the WSC Scoreboard followed closely by Energy (XLE).  Unlike some other sectors, the XRT is not heavily weighted in a few stocks and, as of 11/10/15, has no stock weighted more than 1.27% so when you see strong moves up or down, like today, it is due to a majority of the names trading in that direction.  Bucking the trend…

Earnings should take center stage

The Market: Not much movement in today’s action as we saw a drop in volume across all the major Indices.  The overnight session saw futures move lower which seemed primarily due to some exhaustion in the markets but not helping was China’s GDP numbers which met expectations but slowed compared to the prior quarter.  With this being a light Economic Data week, we expect focus to be on individual stocks as they report earnings.  Below is a list of names that reported tonight after the close and that will report tomorrow with even more listed in the Events Calendar. In…

Early gap up fades, XLE leads lower

Index & Sector performance 4/21/15 The Market: The Nasdaq (QQQ) was the only sector that managed to finish the session higher while the Blue Chip Dow (DIA) was the leader to the downside. After spending the majority of the year down, Energy (XLE) has recently rallied to up YTD but there was no optimism today as the sector finished over 1% lower.  Also finishing lower was Utilities (XLU) down 0.89%, Materials (XLB) down 0.74%, and Financials (XLF) down 0.50%.  Today’s clear leader was HeathCare (XLV) which managed to close up 0.68% on the session. No tracked Economic data yesterday or today…

HealthCare gains as market slides

Index & Sector performance 3/4/15 The Market: Ultimately, only a a small sell off in the markets after the S&P 500 rallied off the lows which coincided nicely with the upward sloping 20 day SMA.  Aggressive traders could certainly look to use today’s low to trade against. In Individual sectors, HealthCare (XLV) was the lone gainer finishing up 0.48% while the Industrials (XLI) led to the downside finishing 0.78% lower followed closely by Consumer Staples (XLP) and Financials (XLF) which finished down 0.70% and 0.61% respectively.  The biggest loser so far for 2015 is the Utilities (XLU) which is now…

Low volume give back after 3 solid days

Index & Sector performance 10/22/14 The Market: Today marked a give back after 3 solid days of gains.  The leader to the downside was the index that we have been watching closely for the past few weeks, the Russell 2000 (IWM).  The IWM’s underperformance throughout the year was a warning just as its outperformance near the recent bottom.  The IWM has put in work to find a bottom and start to move off the lows of last week but it is not our of the woods yet in our opinion.  First step is remaining above $107 and then the lows…

News & EPS will dominate week

Index & Sector performance 10/20/14 The Market: This is a very light Economic data week but don’t worry.  Earnings will more than make up for it with a Packed schedule all the way through to Friday. All the indices on the WSC Scoreboard were nicely higher but the Dow (DIA) was the clear laggard after IBM (IBM) lost over 7% due to a disappointing Q3 report which missed on revenues and EPS.  The company also announced that they would no longer be able to meet its goal of $20/share in operating EPS by 2015. Solid results across all the sectors…

S&P rejected @ 50 DSMA

Index & Sector performance 10/6/14 The Market: The markets start the session in positive territory but the S&P 500 (SPY) quickly ran into resistance at the 50 day SMA and spent the remainder of the day pulling back.  The laggard on the session was the Russell 2000 (IWM) which was the first to go negative on the session finishing down 0.86%  Today’s high in the SPY now becomes a key level to watch along with the 50 day SMA and downward sloping 20 day MA.  This could end up being a choppy trading week. In individual sectors, Transportation (IYT) was…

Tech and HealthCare EPS lead

Index & Sector performance 7/23/14 The Market: Today the stand out index was the NASDAQ (QQQ) which finished 0.64% higher with a lot of help from Apple (AAPL) which finished the day up 2.61% after reporting EPS yesterday after the close.  The S&P 500 (SPY) and Russell 2000 (IWM) were relatively flat, while the Dow (DIA) was the clear laggard and the only index to finish down on the session.  Weighing on the Dow was Boeing (BA) and Caterpillar (CAT) which finished down 2.34% and 1.53% respectively. In individual sectors it was HealthCare (XLV) which shined helped immensely by Intuitive…

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…