March 19, 2024

$50 is the new $5….

The Market: As expected, volatility continues and $50 point swings are becoming as common as $5 point swings use to be.  We expect volatility to remain high but would not be surprised to see the magnitude of the swing start to temper. Today was important because after two straight days of gap ups that sold off into the close, today managed to hold and extend on the gap after an intraday pullback.  As we noted in Monday’s write-up,  the market is very short-term oversold and we would expect a bounce so today’s action is not surprising but we will be…

Market finishes near lows

Index & Sector performance 5/26/15 The Market: A strong down day for the market which saw all the major market indices on the WSC Scoreboard finish down over 1% on the session near the lows for the day.  The futures are up in the after hours session but they will have to prove that this is not just a relief bounce. Utilities (XLU), Consumer Discretionary (XLY), and Consumer Staples (XLP) were the relative out-performers finishing down 0.63%, 0.75%, and 0.79% respectively.  After reaching a high of $62.58 on 5/6/15, Crude Oil is back below $60/barrel after losing 3% in today’s…

Shortened week but already big moves

Index & Sector performance 3/30/15 The Market: Very strong rally across the board today with the Dow (DIA) leading the charge followed by the Russell 2000 (IWM) and then the S&P (SPY).  In the very short-term these indices are overbought and likely due for a consolidation.  The nature of the pullback will be telling if more upside is forthcoming or if we are heading back down toward the lows. Energy (XLE) led the Sectors today closing up over 2% followed by Financial (XLF), Materials (XLB), and Industrials (XLI) all finishing up over 1.5%.  It was green across the board. Please…

Flat session with no catalysts

Index & Sector performance 3/23/15 The Market: A flat start to the week as the market appeared happy to meander without a strong catalyst to tip the balance one way or the other.  In an otherwise boring tape, the Transportation Index (IYT) is worth noting as it closed down 1.83%.  Most of the big names in the index were lower but Kansas City Southern (KSU) was the clear leader to the downside finishing 7.96% lower on the session after announcing reduced FY15 revenue guidance. Existing Home Sales came in weaker than expected and we will be watching to see if…

Russell leads overall dull session

Index & Sector performance 11/24/14 The Market: An overall dull session with the S&P 500 (SPY) and Dow (DIA) barely moving while the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) led.  As is expected for the remainder of this shortened holiday week, volume was very light. In individual sectors it was Retail (XRT) posting another great session up 1.32%.  Today the index was greatly helped by Outerwall (OUTR), operators of Coinstar and Redbox, which finished up 12.32%.  Also chipping in was Best Buy (BBY) up 2.29% and Foot Locker (FL) up 3.45%.  After spending much of the year down, the XRT…

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…

Close lower ahead of bank stress test

Index & Sector performance 3/26/14 The Market: Early morning upside action quickly reversed and started a strong sell off which broke the short term uptrend line in the emini, back-tested and then continued lower into late day trading.  Yet again the 1856ES region was a key short term level and now is strong resistance but the emini will have to first get through 1847ES to start and build a bull case, otherwise don’t be surprised to see the S&P test the 50 day moving average which is roughly 15 points lower.   Reporting EPS 3/27/14 Pre-Market: Analyst Comments: Chart of…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +106.29 (+0.69%) to 15,409.39;S&P 500 +10.46 (+0.63%) to 1,660.06;NASDAQ +20.92 (+0.70%) to 3,011.94 There were stocks moving today but the story was about the broad rally and especially gap higher in the market.  At the highs the S&P 500 was up over 20 points from Friday’s close and while not necessarily attributable to one event seemed moe to be a snap back rally which started overseas in response to the previous week’s sell off.  The market looks to be in a form of price discovery which at this juncture seems predominantly bullish but it is yet to be seen if the that will be the case and…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +55.91 (+0.39%) to 14,511.73; S&P 500 +10.37 (+0.67%) to 1,558.71; NASDAQ +25.09 (+0.78%) to 3,254.19 Today caught me somewhat by surprise as last night I expected today to probably start muted and remain that way until the Fed announcement which could then lay way to some swings.  We got essentially the exact opposite.  A gap in the morning essentially went no where to and through the Fed announcement and Bernanke Q&A with then a few spikes and ultimately the SPY closed roughly where it opened. Speaking of the Fed statement, it was essentially the same as the previous statement minus some wording to acknowledge…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +106.98 (+0.83%) to 12,985.11; S&P 500 +10.99 (+0.79%) to 1,409.93; NASDAQ +23.99 (+0.81%) to 2,991.78; Today’s action began with a drop in the market which rallied back to even by noon time and then pressed higher for the remainder of the day.  The lows of the day correlated nicely with the 38% fib from the lows of 11/16 to the highs on 11/23 as well as the 200 Day SMA all coming in around 1384. In economic news today the main headline was New Home Sales which came in lighter than expected.  While the news was negative and many stocks…