S&P on 5 day win streak
Index & Sector performance 4/21/14 The Market: The S&P 500 has been on an impressive 5 day winning streak but much like the “V” bottom we say back in February this year, this rally is coming on lower than average volume with today being by far the lowest in the S&P 500 sector ETF “SPY”. We stated in our 4/14 write-up that we would not be surprised to see the market used short term oversold levels and the shortened holiday Op-Ex week to rally. The question now is as traders get back to the desk in both the U.S….
Market reaches target, now what?
Index & Sector performance 2/10/14 The Market: A light volume start to the week and a very tight trading range with the S&P 500 cash trading in an 8 point range and even including early trading in the futures the entire day stayed within a 9.25 point range. The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: CVS, S, REGN, RAI, MMC, OMC, PCG, HCP, IR, ETR, GWR Analyst Comments: The Game Plan: The S&P 500 (SPY) 60 minute chart has a potential inverse Head & Shoulder pattern which counts…
Analyst Comments
Today’s featured analyst comment is by Goldman Sachs who upgraded Gartner, Inc. (IT) to Buy with an $85 price target. IT has been on a strong run up over 38% the trailing 12 months and Goldman believes there is more in the tank. Looking at the chart there is some work needed but we think they may be right. If IT can continue to digest under the recent highs while the MACD continues to recycle then this could lay the ground work for another leg higher. What we are watching specifically on the stock is the MACD and the 50…
Apple finally lands China
Index & Sector performance 12/23/13 The Market: The market was able to produce a gap higher to start this shortened trading week which will include a half day of trading Christmas eve and the market will be closed Wednesday December 25th in observance of Christmas. After the gap itself the S&P remained in a roughly 4-5 point trading range the entire day on light volume. There was a fair amount of economic data released today but nothing that really tipped the balances. Core PCE and Consumer spending came in right at expectations while Personal Income slightly missed (0.2% vs. 0.4%…
Retail sales beat, Unemployment drags
Index & Sector performance 12/12/13 The Market: The market continued picked up where it left losing more ground but not as dramatic as the 1% down yesterday. The majority of the losses where in the beginning part of the day with the market making the lows for the day around 12:30 pm EST and starting to rally. That rally halted around 3pm EST and the market used the last hour to sell off not quite making it back to the midday lows. In economic data, Retail Sales number beat expectations and with Core Sales doubling expectations posting a 0.4% and…
Low volume day follows the trend
Index & Sector performance 11/22/13 The Market: The market made solid gains trending higher all day to close over $1800 in the S&P 500. If there was anything concerning about today’s rally, it was the volume which seemed very light but seeing a market move in the direction of the trend on low volume days is not uncommon. There was not much on the Economic data front today besides some fed speak but Thursday the 21st was big. Unemployment Claims came in better than expected posting 10K below (323K vs 333K) expectations while the previous week was adjusted slightly higher…
Rampant optimism spikes the market
Index & Sector performance 10/10/13 The Market: In case you were under a rock today. The market exploded to the upside. The move seemed help by some uncertainty being out of the way including the past news that Janey Yellen would be the new Fed chair and confirmation from the FOMC minutes that tapering will not likely start until the end of the year (or later). To add on there was optimism out of Washington about a debt deal. In economic news, Unemployment claims came in far worse than expected posting a 374K when 307K was expected. The reason the…
S&P 500 narrowly escapes with a gain
Index & Sector performance 10/9/13 The Market: Rumors out of Washington have helped drive the indices of late as investors are looking for more information regarding the government shutdown as well as who may be replacing Ben Bernanke. News today broke that Janet Yellen will be the next Federal Reserve chairperson taking the place of Ben Bernanke at the end of January 2014. Initial opinions seemed to be that Yellen will continue on with a more dovish stance for the Fed. Today looked as though the market could not gain traction but at 11:30 am EST the market bottomed and…
AA kicks off a new earnings season…tomorrow
Index & Sector performance 10/07/13 The Market: The markets started down strong but found early support and rallied into midday but couldn’t hold and press toward Friday’s close and instead sold off during the last hour of trading closing near the early morning slows but just slightly above. Hard to believe we are kicking off another earnings season but Alcoa (AA) will start tings off again Wednesday 10/8/13 after the close. While AA no longer has the significance it once did, it still is known for ushering in the season and many larger more impactful names will then be reporting….
Small gains break 5 day slide
Index & Sector performance 9/26/13 The Market: An early push higher on the S&P 500 was short lived and topped around 10 am EST falling all the way back to the open and even drifting into negative territory. The market then bounced, failed and after retesting the days lows used the last hour to rally into the close. In economic news the Unemployment Claims data came in better than expected posting a 305K number when expectations were of 319K. Unfortunately the remainder of the news was not as good with GDP coming in below expectations printing a 2.5% number when…