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…
Big follow through session
Index & Sector performance 12/18/14 The Market: Following on the rally after the FOMC statement release yesterday, today gaped higher and never looked back with the S&P 500 (SPY) finishing up 2.50%. Yesterday’s leader, the Russell 200 (IWM), was today’s laggard but still finished up 1.45%. Unlike previous sessions where the markets seem to take their cue from Oil, today the markets rallied even while oil continued its slide. Again as would be expected on a day like today, all of the individual sectors were higher with Technology (XLK), HealthCare (XLV), Industrials (XLI), Financials (XLF), and Materials (XLB) all finishing…
News & EPS will dominate week
Index & Sector performance 10/20/14 The Market: This is a very light Economic data week but don’t worry. Earnings will more than make up for it with a Packed schedule all the way through to Friday. All the indices on the WSC Scoreboard were nicely higher but the Dow (DIA) was the clear laggard after IBM (IBM) lost over 7% due to a disappointing Q3 report which missed on revenues and EPS. The company also announced that they would no longer be able to meet its goal of $20/share in operating EPS by 2015. Solid results across all the sectors…
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…
Decline….What Decline?
Index & Sector performance 1/15/14 The Market: The vast majority of today’s action was on the open where the S&P 500 gaped higher and ran until 11am EST which marked the highs of the day. The remainder of the day stayed in a 5 point range from the 11am highs as the market digested the strong reversal rally which has gained roughly 35 S&P points since Monday’s lows. In Economic Data, Headline PPI slightly missed expectations while Core PPI beat. The Beige Book reiterated an overall positive outlook on the economy showing moderate growth. Tomorrow traders will be most focused…
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)…
Daily Wrap
DJIA -138.19 (-0.94%) to 14,618.59; S&P 500 -22.56 (-1.43%) to 1,552.01; NASDAQ -56.43 (-1.99%) to 2,781.98 Yesterday’s rally was short lived as the futures were slightly lower last night after the close and the losses picked up overnight and into the morning’s trading which then lasted the majority of the day not bottoming until just before 1pm EST. Today was a light economic data day, although there was some fed speak, and sets up into tomorrow with the week’s Unemployment claims number. I have estimates at 349K going into the number which is roughly where last week’s reading was (346K). The talk of…