April 23, 2024

Analyst Comments

Since breaking out of a trading range back in October 2013, Alcoa (AA) has been a strong performer gaining over 50%.  With the stock trading around $9.24, Goldman Sachs upgraded AA to Buy with an $11 price target on 11/25/13 and later upped that target to $12 which AA reached in less than 2 months. This action has prompted Goldman Sachs to review AA again and instead of going to a Neutral, they are upping their price target once again this time to $15. We agree with Goldman that it appears AA has more left in the tank but it…

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,…

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…

Week in Review

DJIA +90.54 (+0.63%) to 14,512.03; S&P 500 +11.09 (+0.72%) to 1,556.89; NASDAQ +22.40 (+0.70%) to 3,245.00 As some pessimism laid way to optimism regarding the Cyprus situation and at least got our of the market’s way to press higher near 1% for the day.  What was also positive to see was the line-up with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq leading instead of the Dow (broader based rally). The stock of the day was no doubt Nike (NKE) in my opinion.  Thursday evening after the close NKE posted Q3 EPS of 73c vs estimates of 67c on revenue that met expectations of $6.2B.  The company…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -90.24 (-0.62%) to 14,421.49; S&P 500 -12.91 (-0.83%) to 1,545.80; NASDAQ -31.59 (-0.97%) to 3,222.60 Europe ruled the day and after a small initial gap lower and midday rally, the markets then lost ground the remainder of the day sending it back down near Tuesday’s lows.  In economic data news we saw the U.S. jobless claims slightly rose but were less than expectations.  The data wasn’t enough to really push the markets one way or another and it was back to Europe and underperforming Tech stocks. Most notable tech underperformer was Oracle (ORCL) which closed nearly 10% lower after missing EPS estimates…

Week in Review

DJIA +48.92 (+0.35%) to 13,992.97; S&P 500 +8.54 (+0.57%) to 1,517.93; NASDAQ +28.74 (+0.91%) to 3,193.87 Today the markets gaped higher and continued higher closing near highs.  We had positive economic data where the U.S. trade deficit shrank to its narrowest level in nearly three years. I felt the story of the day was one that didn’t really seem to be taking over the headlines but I think it might be a decision that eventually we look back at and say this was a big move that many others followed.  That was NJ Governor Chris Christie will allow the state…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -129.71 (-0.93%) to 13,880.08; S&P 500 -17.46 (-1.15%) to 1,495.71; NASDAQ -47.93 (-1.51%) to 3,131.17 Today proved to be a very timely pullback as we noted last last week and then this weekend after Friday’s action that we believed a form of a top was in that would provide a longer pullback/consolidation than we have been seeing of late.  Today essentially wiped out all of last week gains and it is not surprising after such a strong move down to see the markets up slightly after the close.  We will have to see if they can hold or build…

Daily Wrap

DJIA+115.57 (+0.87%) to 13,350.96; S&P 500+16.43 (+1.15%) to 1,446.79; NASDAQ+43.93 (+1.46%) to 3,054.53; Today started with a small move into the 1434 resistance we had noted was above last night but after some quick morning consolidation below, we were off to the races following yesterday’s big gains with another nice day higher today.  Leading the way yesterday was the Financials and while they are not the broad leader again today they followed up nicely on the back of positive comments from Meredith Whitney after yesterday’s close and making the financial talk circuit today.  Specifically she upgraded Bank of America (BAC),…