Oil gets crushes while market dips
The Market: A small down day which could have looked worse if not for a late day rally off the lows. Interesting to see the leaders to the downside were the Dow (DIA) and Russell 2000 (IWM). We were looking for the market to close just off the lows and then gap down tomorrow for a short-term long opportunity but today’s end of day rally has changed that set-up. Overall we remain cautious on the broad market and believe the choppy trading of late will continue. Energy (XLE) led to the downside, again, as crude oil continues to slide reaching…
China’s action spills into global markets
The Market: Stocks opened lower after China suffered its worst losing day in over 8 years but the S&P managed to find a bottom right at the 200 day SMA and has so far rallied off the lows with upside action continuing into the after market. It will be interesting to see how China’s market reacts today and if the S&P can keep the momentum going through the overnight trading and into tomorrow’s open. Also don’t forget we have the FOMC Rate decision and Statement on Wednesday the 29th (full Economic Calendar below). Leading to the downside in today’s session…
Revisiting December’s lows
Index & Sector performance 1/6/15 The Market: Oil appears to still be affecting the broad market and causing caution in investors as crude, which lost the psychological $50 level yesterday, traded down over $2 in today’s session. Yesterday we remarked that a gap down in the morning could be a short term trading opportunity to the long side but unfortunately we opened flat to slightly up, negative the set-up, and then continue to crawl higher in the first hour of trading before the indices began to sharply lose ground. Today’s sharp drop eventually found support at the mid-December trading lows…
Low volume drift higher
Index & Sector performance 11/10/14 The Market: Without any key news or economic data the market was happy to drift with the trend which is higher. This drift higher in the markets has created some negative divergence on the intraday charts so we would not be surprised to see downside action early in the week. However, at this time we would expect the losses to be contained and ultimately for that initial dip to be a buying opportunity for short term traders. Stand out sector to the upside was Transportation (IYT) which finished the day 1.34% higher followed by HealthCare…
S&P rejected @ 50 DSMA
Index & Sector performance 10/6/14 The Market: The markets start the session in positive territory but the S&P 500 (SPY) quickly ran into resistance at the 50 day SMA and spent the remainder of the day pulling back. The laggard on the session was the Russell 2000 (IWM) which was the first to go negative on the session finishing down 0.86% Today’s high in the SPY now becomes a key level to watch along with the 50 day SMA and downward sloping 20 day MA. This could end up being a choppy trading week. In individual sectors, Transportation (IYT) was…
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 dips early but fights back
Index & Sector performance 1/21/14 The Market: This is the type of market that frustrates both the Bull & the Bears. Strong moves in each direction serve to whip weak traders our of their positions. After a very light futures trading session Monday with the Stock Market closed, the S&P 500 futures pressed higher in late Monday/early Tuesday trading. Just before the open the futures printed $1844 and then started to sell off right at the open. The market finally found a bottom near noon EST but only after losing roughly 18 points from the pre-market highs. The S&P 500…
Triple witching tomorrrow
Index & Sector performance 12/19/13 The Market: Today trading range was rather tight after yesterday’s explosion with the entire day’s range in the S&P 500 only about 9 points. Tomorrow will be options expiration and a Triple Witching which can come with some volatility. In economic data today we sub a much worse than expected Unemployment claims number come in at 379K when 366K was expected. Other key data also underperformed expectations with Existing Home Sales missing expectations (4.9M vs. 5.04M) and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index (7 vs. 10.3). Tomorrow we get GDP and Monday 12/23 we have Core PCE,…
Ben to the rescue!
Index & Sector performance 9/18/13 The Market: The clock struck 2pm EST and it is time for Big Ben and the Fed to put all the recent speculation, at least for now, to rest. Neither changes to the current $85B bond purchased program nor the fed funds target rate. That news sparked a near 30 point rally which ultimately closed up 23 points from the announcement. Besides the Federal Reserve rate decision, in economic data we had building permits and housing starts which both came in lower than the previous month and also below expectations but with all due respect…