March 19, 2024

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…

Tech & Small cap trend change?

Index & Sector performance 9/3/14 The Market: While the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY) closed essentially flat, the Nasdaq (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) both finished decisively lower.  In addition the technical action in both the QQQ and IWM is concerning as both started the day gaping above the previous day’s highs to only then sell off the remainder of the day finishing below the previous day’s lows.  Those into candlestick charting will recognize this as an Engulfing pattern and can signal a change in trend. In individual sectors it the Utilities (XLU) leading the charge finishing the day…

Market recovers after weak GDP

Index & Sector performance 6/25/14 The Market: After a quiet overnight session, the S&P 500 futures spiked lower after the Government announced worse than expected GDP estimates for the first quarter of the year but, after the open, buyers stepped in and all four main indices from the WSC Scoreboard closed higher. In individual sectors HeathCare (XLV) and Transportation (IYT) outperformed closing up 1.06% and 0.99% respectively.  The only sector closing lower on the WSC Scoreboard was Consumer Staples (XLP) finishing down 0.16%.  The leader in the XLV was Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) finishing up 2.96% after announcing positive Phase III…

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…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -206.04 (-1.35%) to 15,112.19;S&P 500 -22.88 (-1.39%) to 1,628.93;NASDAQ -36.59 (-1.22%) to 2,959.50 You are likely living under a rock if you were not aware that today was rate decision and FOMC minute day.  It was not about the rate decision itself as no one I heard was anticipating a move but it was all about the minutes and specifically the discussion of when the stimulus would end or the key word of recent times “tapered”.  The decision and comments sent the markets tumbling and closed down over 22 points in the S&P and 200 on the Dow.  In the grand scheme…

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…