March 19, 2024

The Nightcap

The Market: A very strong session which was led by the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Dow (DIA) which the S&P 500 (SPY) not far behind.  It was interesting to see the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight index lag the S&P pointing to the gains being in the higher weighted stocks in the S&P 500 index.  Additionally the Russell 2000 (IWM) underperformed posting half the gains of the SPY. In individual sectors the day session was led by the Industrials (XLI) followed closely by the Materials (XLB).  Also closing up over 2% on the session was Technology (XLK) and that move looks…

Markets finish up but look vulnerable

The Market: While it was not our expectation, we noted in Tuesday’s NightCap that, if the market extended higher, we would expect the downward sloping 20 day SMA to act as resistance.  If you look at the SPY, this is exactly where the market stopped in early trading on Wednesday and then proceeded to pullback sharply.  While all the major indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished higher in today’s trading, the market looks vulnerable to more downside in the coming days-weeks. Leading sectors in today’s trading was Transportation (IYT), Technology (XLK), and HealthCare (XLV) while the Utilities (XLU) and Retail…

Weak Data & Earnings help drive stocks lower

Index & Sector performance 1/27/15 The Market: While the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY) finished down over 1%, it was the NASDAQ (QQQ) which led the session to the downside finishing 2.59% lower.  Microsoft (MSFT) was the biggest drain on the QQQ as it finished down 9.25% after a disappointing EPS report and even managed to pull down Apple (AAPL) which finished 3.5% lower on the session.  Things may look a little better for the tech sector tomorrow as AAPL is up after hours after reporting EPS. The Russell 2000 (IWM) managed to be the relative winner finishing down…

Low vol drift higher

Index & Sector performance 12/3/14 The Market: Another low volume drift higher today which saw the Russell 2000 (IWM) lead and the NASDAQ (QQQ) lag even spending some time down on the session. In individual sectors, Consumer Staples (XLP) and Utilities (XLU) were the only two from the WSC Scoreboard to finish lower which Materials (XLB), Industrials (XLI), and Energy (XLE) finished up over 1%.  One name helping materials have such a strong session was LyondellBasell (LYB) which has been down significantly since September but finished today up over 2% and was up more than 3% intraday.  LYB is a…

Citi & Retail Sales aid rally

Index & Sector performance 4/14/14   The Market: The S&P 500 started lower in Sunday’s overnight session but quickly found a bottom and moved off the lows into early trading.  Met with better than expected retail sales and an earnings beat by Citigroup (C), the rally continued until just after noon ET before topping out and starting a slide back toward the overnight lows.  It appeared the market was yet again faced with a late day sell off but with one hour left in trading the S&P 500 found a bottom and snapped back toward the highs of the session….

The Calm before Jobs data storm?

Index & Sector performance 1/9/14 The Market: A mixed consolidation day in S&P 500 saw the futures up in the pre-market only to sell off at the open.  That sell off persisted until 11am EST losing roughly 15 S&P points from the pre-market highs and then the S&P bottomed and staged a rally which didn’t make it back to the pre-market highs but did take back more than half of what was lost. In Economic data today, Unemployment claims came in better than expected posting a 330K number when 337K was expected but the previous week was revised about 6K…