Fed helps S&P to new highs
Index & Sector performance 6/18/14 The Market: After what amounted to a roughly 1.5% correction from the 6/9/14 highs to the 6/12/14 lows, the S&P 500 has since rallied and as of today’s close made a new intraday and closing all time high. The majority of the gains were realized after the FOMC statement and rate decision where the Fed left the rate unchanged and lowered monthly bond purchases by $10B. We have taken a cautious stance on the broad market since 6/6/14 due to multiple overbought conditions across multiple time frames. While the pullback from 6/9 – 6/12/14 helped…
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…
Low volume rally led by Russell 2K
Index & Sector performance 5/20/14 The Market: An overall light volume day was led to the upside by the Russell 2000 followed by the NASDAQ 100. In individual sectors, Utilities (XLU) led to the downside followed by the Consumer Staples (XLP) while the transportation index was the largest gainer with components Matson (MATX) and JetBlue (JBLU) up the most gaining 3.05% and 2.42% respectively. MATX and JBLU both appear to be viable long trade candidates going forward. This is an extremely quiet Economic data week with a lot of Fed speak. Earnings will play a role for individual stocks so…
Window dressing or more to come?
Index & Sector performance 3/31/14 The Market: The Quarter ends with a nice up session which has some throwing around the term “window dressing”. While we do not necessarily disagree with the sentiment, we also believe price is the ultimate indicator and therefore today’s action has to be respected. Otherwise it is ultimately a continuation of the short term consolidation between the highs on the S&P 500 cash at $1883.97 and the 3/14/14 lows of $1839.57. In the very short term the futures appear to be flagging overnight and could look to next target the 1875ES region. Support is 1862ES…
Early Gains quickly fade
Index & Sector performance 1/06/14 The Market: Pre-market optimism was met with early selling which took the S&P 500 from $137 on the open own to $1824 by midday. The market bounced along crafting a bottom until roughly 2pm EST when the S&P managed to rally off the lows. While it never made it back to the morning high, the S&P managed to rally back toward even on the day but then sold off in the last hour closing near the lows of the day. In economic news we saw Factory Orders and Services PMI come in as expected while…
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…
Icahn comments spark late day sell off
Index & Sector performance 11/18/13 The Market: It was a fairly quiet day in the markets until a comment from Carl Icahn appears to have started a late day sell off after noting that he could see the markets have a “big drop”. This sent the S&P 500 down roughly 12 points in the final hour of trading In economic date the NAHB Housing Market Index fell slightly short of estimates posting a 54 when 56 was expected. Today also some a mix of Fed speak and that continues tomorrow including Fed Chairman Bernanke at 7pm EST and President Obama…
China fears helped send market lower
Index & Sector performance 10/23/13 The Market: Today was a gap own and meander day where the majority f the losses were seen in very early trading and the rest of the day was mostly choppy. News attributed the drop to tightening fears out of China which sent international markets lower but as we have discussed here the market seemed ripe for a pullback. More lower.. In economic data there was not too much today with import prices coming in roughly as expected while the Home Price Index was well below expectations (0.3% vs 0.8%) . Yesterday we had the…
Daily Wrap
DJIA -70.73 (-0.47%) to 15,010.74;S&P 500 -9.77 (-0.59%) to 1,646.06;NASDAQ -13.69 (-0.38%) to 3,589.09 The S&P 500 started today with a gap lower but quickly rallied to not only retake the early losses but move into positive territory for the day. Then around 10:30 am EST the market started to roll and spent the remainder of the day under pressure and ultimately ended up closing below the 50 day SMA. No economic data to report and this is a light econ data week, at least for the US. Apple (AAPL) was able to buck the broad market’s downward trend and close slightly higher…
Daily Wrap
DJIA -19.12 (-0.12%) to 15,335.28; S&P 500 -1.18 (-0.07%) to 1,666.29; NASDAQ -7.99 (-0.26%) to 3,020.97 Today the market somewhat consolidated after its ramp into options expiration last Friday. Initially it looked as though it could be another strong move higher as early trading was choppy but then we spiked higher into the noon EST time. That spike was eventually lost and we ultimately close near flat on the day. It was interesting to see the Russell 2000 be the strongest index and only one to close higher. Small caps leading might bode well for ultimately higher prices. Tomorrow is Tuesday and interestingly…