March 19, 2024

The NightCap

The Market: We expected to see a tight trading range until the FOMC statement but instead we saw buyers in advance of the statement as the S&P 500 (SPY) pressed higher.  The the announcement came and there was a sharp sell-off but buyers came right back and all 4 major market indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished above the pre-FOMC announcement highs. As was expected by many, the FOMC left the Fed Fund Rates unchanged but, based on the comments, it appears a rate hike is on the table for December if the data warrants.  We also saw the committee…

XLU stands out in today’s action

Index & Sector performance 2/18/15 The Market: A choppy session overall which ended up finishing flat.  Some negative divergence is building on the S&P 500 60 minute chart but, even when it leads to a pullback, the divergence can exist for many day.  We wouldn’t be surprised to see the index continue to meander and drift higher for the remainder of the week into Options expiration. In individual sectors it was the Utilities (XLU) leading the way and by a wide margin finishing up 2.37%.  We would be watching the XLU closely here to see if it can build on…

S&P snaps 2 day losing streak

Index & Sector performance 2/10/15 The Market: The S&P 500 snapped a 2 day losing streak with a solid rally closing up over 1% on the session while the NASDAQ led the charge finishing up over 1.50% helped by Apple (AAPL) which closed at a fresh all time highs.  The Russell 2000 (IWM) was the laggard but still managed to finish up 0.67%. All the sectors on the WSC Scoreboard were higher with the exception of Energy (XLE) which was taking its cue from Crude’s slide today after running into the 50 day SMA.  Utilities (XLU) was the biggest gainer…

Holiday trading continued

Index & Sector performance 12/29/14 The Market: Today’s session was a continuation of the previous week’s holiday trading and will likely continue this way for the rest of the week with Thursday being closed for New Year’s Day.  The Russell 2000 (IWM) led while the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Dow (DIA) finished slightly lower. The leading individual sectors were the Utilities (XLU) and Retail (XRT) finishing up 1.15% and 0.98% respectively.  As might be expected with the QQQ finishing lower, Technology (XLK) lagged followed by Consumer Staples (XLP). There were no scheduled Economic Events today but there is some noteworthy data…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -106.59 (-0.69%) to 15,302.80;S&P 500 -11.70 (-0.70%) to 1,648.36;NASDAQ -17.12 (-0.57%) to 2,994.82 The markets spend the entire day down and started off with a 10+ point drop.  After finally finding a bottom around 11am EST down over 17 the S&P 500 rallied into the 2:30 pm EST time frame and finally drifted lower the remainder of the day giving up some of those midday gains.  The market did not breach the 5/23-5/24 lows and has also remained above the 20 day SMA.  Overall I still view the market as bullish and deciding whether it will consolidate as a triangle with the short term lows…