March 19, 2024

Eurozone fears trigger late day sell-off

Index & Sector performance 2/4/15 The Market: Monday’s reversal in the S&P 500 (SPY) of the 200 day SMA continued Tuesday and was extending in today’s session, even with Oil trading lower, until later in the trading day when the index dropped sharply.  Traders pointed to news our of Europe that the ECB will not allow Banks to use Greek government debt as collateral for loans as the catalyst.  The Dow (DIA) was the only index on the WSC Scoreboard which managed to finish higher but that was greatly due to Disney (DIS) beating EPS and finishing up 7.63% on…

Late rally masks tough session

Index & Sector performance 10/15/14 The Market: A very volatile session in today’s trading which saw the S&P 500 (SPY) down 3% before a sharp last hour rally helped the index only finish down 0.75%.  Without that late rally, the SPY would have been down year-to-date at the close.  As has been the case of late, the Russell 2000 (IWM) outperformed finishing the session up over 1%. The best performing sector in today’s session was Energy (XLE).  Like the SPY, the XLE was down much more earlier in the session but finished the session up 0.76% after a strong last…

Merger denied, collaboration approved

Index & Sector performance 7/16/14 The Market: A small up session in the market was helped by solid earnings reports in the morning and a potential huge media merger between Time Warner (TWX) and Twenty First Century Fox (FOXA).  FOXA offered $85/share but were turned down by TWZ.  This sent shares of TWX screaming higher finishing the day up 17.07% as traders reevaluated TWX’s worth and also speculated on increased offers.  In other corporate news, Apple (AAPL) announced they will be teaming up with IBM (IBM) to provide business mobile solutions.  BlackBerry (BBRY) was negatively affected by the news finishing…

Stong gains for shortened Op-Ex week

Index & Sector performance 4/16/14 The Market: From our recap Monday we noted that while the market still appeared vulnerable to the downside, we would also not be surprised to see oversold short term levels and the shortened holiday trading week provide a bounce.  We did not at that time realize that we would get both the downside and the rally all in one day but that is in fact what happened on Tuesday and today was a follow-through on that action. Tomorrow is the last day of trading for the week since the market is closed Friday in observance…

Russell leads Indices lower

Index & Sector performance 3/24/14 The Market: The Bull missed a great opportunity in our opinion when a late day rally stalled and failed to get above the 1856.50ES resistance and they even had the opportunity to close up on the day.  Now the 1852-56.50ES region should act as resistance and leaves the door open for an overnight drop toward 1840ES and then further 1827ES. In Economic Data we had Manufacturing PMI come in lighter than expected but the previous number was revised higher .  Tomorrow the market will be watching Consumer Confidence and New Home Sales.   Reporting EPS…

Off the 150 day and up

Index & Sector performance 2/5/14 The Market:   In the News:     The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: PM, AET, EXC, CMI, NBL, K, PPL, PRGO, ADS, SIAL, WEC, TW, AAP, VMC, DO, TDC, KKR, SNA, CSL, NUS, ODFL, AOL, PTEN, USG, NYT, FSC, HCLP, NILE   Analyst Comments:       The Game Plan:

Analyst Comments

Today’s featured analyst comment is by Goldman Sachs who upgraded Gartner, Inc. (IT) to Buy with an $85 price target.  IT has been on a strong run up over 38% the trailing 12 months and Goldman believes there is more in the tank.  Looking at the chart there is some work needed but we think they may be right. If IT can continue to digest under the recent highs while the MACD continues to recycle then this could lay the ground work for another leg higher.  What we are watching specifically on the stock is the MACD and the 50…

Buy the rumor – Sell the news?

Index & Sector performance 10/16/13 The Market: Another strong day in the market sent the S&P 500 index over 23 points higher after a brief consolidation day yesterday.  What started as a small gap quickly ran in the first hour of trading eventually topping at 11:15 am EST.  The market then consolidated until 2:30 pm EST when it bottom and started a rally back toward the highs of the day.  Amidst a light economic data week, the news of Washington and the pending debt deal have continued to drive attention and trader reaction. Ahead of tomorrow’s Unemployment data (357K Consensus)…

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…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +7.22 (+0.05%) to 13,986.52; S&P 500 +0.83 (+0.05%) to 1,512.12; NASDAQ -3.10 (-0.10%) to 3,168.48 Today was a sloppy up day that saw the S&P 500 spend the majority of the day down except for a midday and then end of day rally which equate to less than a 1 point gain. I noted last night that this week does not have much in the way of planned economic data or events and therefore it is likely that the headlines will be focused on the earnings being announced.  Today seems to be an example of how there just didn’t…