March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: Overall it was another tight trading range session but the Russell 2000 (IWM) continued its underperformance and finished down over –1%.  It appears that traders may be on hold until the FOMC statement and rate decision tomorrow. Transportation (IYT) sector was the hardest hit on the WSC Scoreboard as the sector ETF finished down -2.65% followed by yesterday’s biggest loser, Energy (XLE), which closed down -1.2%.  The biggest gaining sector on the session was HealthCare (XLV) which finished up 1.84% and was helped by Allergan (AGN), Biogen Inc (BIIB), Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (VRTX), and Mylan NV (MYL) which all…

Energy leads while healthcare lags

The Market: Overall a consolidation session in the markets as the Dow (DIA) finished higher while the S&P 500 (SPY), NASDAQ (QQQ), and Russell 2000 (IWM) finished lower . Energy stocks continue to remain in vogue as the XLE finished 2.22% higher on the session and marked the 5th straight day of higher closes.  Materials (XLB) was the next closest outperformer finishing up 1.3% and Technology (XLK) was the only other sector to finish up. Lagging in today’s session was HealthCare (XLV) which finished down -2.35% and saw all components finish the day lower except for Mallinckrodt (MNK) and Dentsply…

Holiday Fed combo = low vol

The Market: A combination of the Rosh Hashanah (from sunset Sept 13th to nightfall Sept 15th) and traders waiting to see what the FOMC will say Thursday yielded a low volume choppy session which saw the markets finish slightly lower. There are not many earnings reports scheduled for this week but there are some noteworthy names including Oracle (ORCL), Adobe (ADBE), FedEx (FDX), and Rite Aid (RAD). No Economic data today but the remainder of the week is fairly packed with the aforementioned FOMC Rate decision and Statement scheduled for Thursday.       Reported EPS After the Close this…

Pop off support as FOMC looms

The Market: A nice snap back rally today as the S&P 500 continues to hold the 200 day SMA.  We would not be surprised to see limited action overnight and in early trading tomorrow as traders wait to see what the Fed says at 2pm ET. Yesterday’s laggard, Energy (XLE), is today’s leader finishing up 2.86% followed closely by Transportation (IYT) which finished up 2.75%.  Also posting strong sessions was Materials (XLB), Industrials (XLI), and HeathCare (XLV) finishing up 2.09%, 1.94% and 1.81% respectively. FOMC statement tomorrow and remember we are still in the thick of earnings reports which will…

Market churns while XLU heads lower

Index & Sector performance 2/25/15 The Market: Another day of churn as the market continues to grind with an upward bias.  As we posted over at StockTwits we are starting to see a lot of negative divergence setting up on the MACD.  Divergence is not a trigger itself but is showing signs that each move higher comes with less momentum and excitement. Utilities (XLU) was the leader to the downside and a name we recently posted about in the Charts section.   After seeing a lot of people bullish on the name, we laid the road map we felt the Bulls…

Eurozone helps U.S. go green YTD

Index & Sector performance 1/8/15 The Market: The Dow (DIA), S&P 500 (SPY) and Nasdaq (QQQ) are all green for the year as of today’s close with the Russell 2000 (IWM) lagging down 0.8%.  Considering there have only been about 5 trading days in the new year, this is not saying much but the recent 2 day recovery is impressive and reminiscent of what we saw all 2013 and 2014. Helping the U.S. market today was statements from Mario Draghi that the ECB will discuss adding more or new monetary stimulus at their next rate meeting in two weeks.  This…

Heartfelt thank you to our Vets!!!

Index & Sector performance 11/11/14 The Market: A Heartfelt thank you goes out to all of the past, present, and future service men and women who work each day to keep us safe.  Without you, what we have and unfortunately often take for granted each and every day would not exist.  Almost zeros across the board as it was a relatively uneventful trading session.  Maybe the clearest example of how uneventful is that the entire trading day’s range on the S&P 500 was 6 points and volume was again light. As noted last night, we still view the short term…

Indices take back losses plus

Index & Sector performance 5/22/14 The Market: Overall today was a quiet day in the market which saw green across the entire WSC Scoreboard with the Dow and NASDAQ leading the charge followed closely by the S&P and finally the Russell 2000 which is getting use to lagging.  At 2pm EDT the FOMC minutes were released and discussed risks to the economy including U.S. housing, the Russia-Ukraine situation, and China’s economic slow down but this news did not appear to bother traders. Tomorrow is be the biggest economic data day of the week which includes Unemployment Claims and Existing Home…

GDP disappoints but market ignores

Index & Sector performance 4/30/14 The Market: As you can see in the table below, the U.S. Q1 GDP number came in well below expectations.  While Q1 was not expected to be a high growth quarter, clearly analysts did not expect a near negative number.  Certainly the colder than expected weather could have and likely did play a role but on our opinion you cannot completely blame a miss like this on the weather. So why might traders and investors be willing to look past this data besides the weather?  Possibly because a number like this allows the Fed to…

Easy come, easy go…for the Bears

Index & Sector performance 3/4/14 The Market: In overnight trading the S&P 500 broke out over our highlighted resistance just below $1850ES and never looked back ultimately not only regaining all that was lost on Monday but also adding a few points to close at a new all time high. The news attributed the move to an easing in the Russia/Ukraine situation after Putin reportedly stated that Russia would only use force as a last result. Tomorrow will be a very interesting day in the market especially coming off the previous two days of trading.  If we start to see…