How will traders position for weekend?
Index & Sector performance 4/10/14 The Market: Today the market not only took back the gains realized yesterday off the FOMC minutes but also the gains from Tuesday’s session leaving fresh closing lows for the week on a roughly 40 point down day in the S&P 500. With only one day remaining in the week, it will be very interesting to see how trader’s position tomorrow ahead of the weekend. We have a hard time believing that traders will be anxious to position long going into the weekend after today. We will be increasingly suspect of any early morning to…
S&P 500 remains above the 50 DSMA
Index & Sector performance 4/7/14 The Market: Friday’s selling action continues on Monday as the S&P 500 index lost roughly 20 points. Today’s lows in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) correlated nicely with previous levers of reaction and the 50 day SMA. If this short term support is lost we could see the cash index next targeting $1800 and even $1650-1700. In the meantime, aggressive traders could look to use today’s lows as a level to trade again on the long side for a bounce. Reporting EPS 4/8/14 Pre-Market: Only one name of note reporting EPS tomorrow…
Early pop leads to late day drop
Index & Sector performance 3/11/14 The Market: The market rallied pre-market into the open, pulled back and went again but was unable to break through a pivot confluence resistance area. The pullback into the noon EST period started to consolidate but the MACD was telling that more downside was likely. As we reached the 2-2:30 pm EST time frame the S&P again started to weaken and broke to fresh lows for the day. We will be watching for $1860ES and then further $1850ES for support levels. On the S&P500 cash index the 20 day SMA comes in around $1853. In…
S&P 500 closes at new highs
Index & Sector performance 10/17/13 The Market: The government put the debt ceiling behind the nation….until the beginning of next year. The temporary resolution should take the issue off the front pages, for now. The markets started with a gap lower which was quickly bought up and a strong rally continued to build off the 10/09 lows with the S&P 500 posting all time closing highs. In economic news Unemployment Claims came in at 358K vs consensus expectations of 357K so inline and then the Philly Fed Manufacturing index saw a small drop but was better than expected. CNBC reported…
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…
Great Initial Claims data but….
The Market: The markets saw a small down day which after the recent bullish action only seems to be best described as a consolidation. The leading sector of the day was technology which saw Apple (AAPL) Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) lead but the next best sector was the Consumer Staples and the standout there was Walgreen (WAG) which caught an upgrade to Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs. In economic data there was a great deal of data including the often watched Initial Jobless Claims which came in better than expected posting a 292K number vs the consensus estimate of…
Daily Wrap
DJIA +109.67 (+0.73%) to 15,179.85;S&P 500 +12.31 (+0.76%) to 1,639.04;NASDAQ +27.40 (+0.93%) to 2,971.26 The market started the week strong with a gap higher on upbeat earnings reports and optimism that the Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke will remove uncertainty around the current bond buying situation. While lack of clarity does hamper the markets, I think the market is also betting on a statement that will leave the foot on the monetary gas for the longer. If the committee as a whole starts to sound more hawkish there could be, even albeit only initiate, adverse reaction. Two big name companies announcing a partnership…
Week in Review
DJIA +11.75 (+0.08%) to 14,712.55; S&P 500 -2.92 (-0.18%) to 1,582.24; NASDAQ -8.11 (-0.28%) to 2,840.55 With the exception of the Dow, the markets were on the downside Friday but only slightly so on what was a relatively uneventful options expiration. All in all I would call today another consolidation day. The S&P 500 started relatively flat and then moved lower until noon EST where it set a bottom and rallied the remainder of the day including a quick peak into positive territory just before the close which was eventually sold leave the small loss on the day. In economic news we saw real GDP growth…
Daily Wrap
DJIA +152.29 (+1.05%) to 14,719.46; S&P 500 +16.28 (+1.04%) to 1,578.78; NASDAQ +25.30 (+0.90%) to 2,835.37 Very strong day today in the market today with all major indices moving up roughly 1% or higher. Today started with a gap higher and steadily climbed all day until 1pm EST when we saw a spike down. We later realized the spike was caused by a false report by the AP, after their Twitter feed was hacked, that two bombs went off at the White House injuring the President. Once the market realized the error they snapped back (whole process took a few minutes) but then still…
Daily Wrap
DJIA +5.22 (+0.04%) to 14,455.28; S&P 500 +2.04 (+0.13%) to 1,554.52; NASDAQ +2.80 (+0.09%) to 3,245.12 Early trading in the S&P was slightly lower but after noon EST made a move into the green and remained there for the remainder of the day. Today was very reminiscent of the rally in general showing a strong sense of resilience and using any dips as buying opportunities. If I had to point to something of worry it would likely be some of the volume which seems to be getting lighter in the index ETFs like the SPY. Also the recent trading has left some indecision…