Low Volume Slow grind Higher
Index & Sector performance 2/17/15 The Market: Monday the markets were closed in observance of President’s Day. As trading started back Monday evening, the futures traded lower but by the open Tuesday all the loses were recouped and after an early session consolidation the index pressed toward new closing highs. Volume was light but this could be due to the winter storms around the nation. All broad indices on the WSC Scoreboard are noticeably higher YTD with the Dow (DIA) lagging and the NASDAQ (QQQ) leading. In individual sectors it a little more mixed. HealthCare (XLV) was the clear leading…
Drop to set-up end-of-year rally?
Index & Sector performance 12/30/14 The Market: Without any catalysts, the market drifted slightly lower today but we would be very careful on the short side as this could just be a set-up to finish out the week strong. In addition, we would be looking at a gap down tomorrow as a potential short term trading opportunity on the long side. While all sectors finished lower, Utilities (XLU) led the way closing down over 2%. Tomorrow is the biggest data day of the week with Unemployment Claims the headline. Analyst Comments:
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…
Late rally masks tough session
Index & Sector performance 10/15/14 The Market: A very volatile session in today’s trading which saw the S&P 500 (SPY) down 3% before a sharp last hour rally helped the index only finish down 0.75%. Without that late rally, the SPY would have been down year-to-date at the close. As has been the case of late, the Russell 2000 (IWM) outperformed finishing the session up over 1%. The best performing sector in today’s session was Energy (XLE). Like the SPY, the XLE was down much more earlier in the session but finished the session up 0.76% after a strong last…
Down but much better than the start
Index & Sector performance 9/29/14 The Market: All 4 broad market indices closed lower however all also closed well off their lows of the session. The standout sector in today’s trading is clearly the Utilities (XLU) which finished up 0.65% and is currently in 4th place amongst the WSC Scoreboard sectors for largest YTD gain. The biggest laggard was Consumer Discretionary (XLY) followed by Materials (XLB). In Economic data, Pending Home Sales was a big disappointment coming in at -1% when -0.4% was expected while last months reading was adjusted slightly lower to 3.2% from 3.3%. Reporting EPS…
Market awaits Jobs number
Index & Sector performance DATE The Market: Today’s action started off higher after the ECB lowered rates and took added measures to try and stimulate the economy but the gains were short lived peaking about an hour after the open and faced selling pressure the remainder of the session. It was not surprising to see follow-through to the downside after yesterday’s Bearish Engulfing candles but so far the downside has been contained. In individual sectors, the Transports (IYT) led gaining 0.72% while the Retail (XRT) was a close second finishing up 0.59% on the day and after spending a majority…
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…
Early optimism wanes
Index & Sector performance 6/24/14 The Market: After a very tight trading range in the overnight session, the market moved higher after the New Home Sales and Consumer Confidence data was released at 10 am ET. Both handily beat estimates rising to their best levels in 6 years, however, this optimism proved to be short lived as the S&P 500 topped in midday trading and spent the remainder of the day losing ground finally finishing 12 points lower in the S&P 500 cash index and roughly 20 points off the intraday highs. In individual sectors, Energy (XLE) clearly led all…
Energy green in a sea of red
Index & Sector performance 6/11/14 The Market: As we noted late last week and reiterated in Monday’s report, the S&P 500 closed outside of its Weekly (20, 2, -2) Bollinger Bands which has previously lead to counter trend moves for a few weeks to months. While we respect the strong uptrend in the market, we also believe this is time to exercise caution on the long side, at least for the broad market. One additional note. While many market pundits in the media have been looking for pull back and becoming cautious recently, they also seem very willing to step…
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…