March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: An initial gap higher was immediately sold but an afternoon surge helped the Dow, S&P and NASDAQ finish higher while greatly paring losses in the Russell 2000.  Downside momentum seems to be waning and today’s mixed session is likely pointing to a bottom.  In all likelihood that bottom will only be short-term but we will have to see how the action takes place. Ideally, for the start of a move higher, we would like to see a gap down (or strong move lower in early trading) tomorrow which takes us near or below today’s lows which is again…

The NightCap

The Market: Stocks had another tough session following a second day where the Chinese market was halted.  Chinese officials have removed the circuit breaker restrictions for tomorrow’s session and traders appear to be preparing for a volatile session but it will be interesting to see if allowing the index to freely trade will ultimately help it bottom — even if only for the short-term. Another session where no Sector saw gains but the relative outperformers were Retail (XRT), which was helped by Wal-Mart (WMT) after gaining 2.3% on the session, and Monday’s leader Utilities (XLU). Along with what happens overnight…

Huge intraday swings

The Market: As expected, volatility continues and while we would not expect 100 point S&P days to become a common occurrence we do expect to see sharp swings both up and down. Our current expectation is that the market will ultimately revisit this morning’s lows is not make new lows but in the short-term the market is very oversold and should stage some sort of rally — not just intraday like today but on a closing basis over a few days.  That rally will be very telling and if weak we could be setting up for much much lower and…

China & Buffett support stong session

The Market: A strong overnight session in China which was triggered by changes to the latest monetary policy report and also on reports that China will overhaul state-owned enterprises helped get the market started and then Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) helped fan the fire by first purchasing Precision Cast Part (PCP) for $235/share in cash and then during an interview noted that he likes IBM (IBM) and answered a question about if he is buying that people should check the SEC filings in the coming days.  The Dow (DIA) led today’s rally. Energy (XLE) was the biggest…

XLU stands out in today’s action

Index & Sector performance 2/18/15 The Market: A choppy session overall which ended up finishing flat.  Some negative divergence is building on the S&P 500 60 minute chart but, even when it leads to a pullback, the divergence can exist for many day.  We wouldn’t be surprised to see the index continue to meander and drift higher for the remainder of the week into Options expiration. In individual sectors it was the Utilities (XLU) leading the way and by a wide margin finishing up 2.37%.  We would be watching the XLU closely here to see if it can build on…

Off the 200 Day and up

Index & Sector performance 2/2/15 The Market: The S&P 500 (SPY) started the session lower but found support just slightly above the 200 day SMA which has not been visited since October 2014.  After an initial pop and then pullback the index rallied the remainder of the session to finish over 30 points off the lows.  So far in the after hours the index is holding the gains and consolidating.  Today’s action should be very promising for long traders and you know your stops — below today’s lows. The leading sector on the WSC Scoreboard was Energy (XLE) finishing up…

S&P follows crude lower yet again

Index & Sector performance 12/15/14 The Market: Crude oil started to rebound in Sunday’s overnight session and helped the major indices start the day with a gap higher but the optimism was short lived.  Oil quickly started to lose ground after the open and reached fresh 52 week lows by noon taking the S&P with it.  Both indices found a midday bottom but only the S&P was able to close above those lows. We are interested to see if there is follow-through on the downside tomorrow in the S&P and if so we suggest traders remaining open to the possibility…

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…

Market lower & Energy higher on week

Index & Sector performance 6/13/14 The Market: After logging a close outside of the Weekly (20, 2, -2) Bollinger Bands in the S&P 500 last week, the S&P 500 finished this week slightly lower.  As we noted last week when it happened, this is a noteworthy event to track in our opinion because it has led to multi-week/month counter trend moves and remains one reason we continue to cautious on the broad market at this time. While most of the sectors from the WSC Scoreboard finished the trading session higher, it was again Energy (XLE) leading the charge closing up nearly…

S&P Futures play MA pinball

Index & Sector performance 12/16/13 The Market: The made strong gains today after what looked like a horrible start to the week.  In overnight trading Sunday the S&P 500 dropped t0 $1754 (March 2014 emini contract) tagging the 50 day SMA and then built a rally off that support.  Surprisingly by the morning the futures had not only regained everything that was lost from Sunday evening’s open but also but in some gains.  Those who do not look at the futures may have never even known of the rough start.  The futures then rallied pre-market to the 20 day SMA…