March 19, 2024

Back-to-Back big declines

The Market: WOW!  As we noted in Wednesday’s Nightcap, we expected volatility to continue and that there “seems to be a great deal of risk in the market”.  That is why we noted a move below Wednesday’s low of 2070 in the S&P 500 could trigger a sharp decline targeting 2000 in the S&P to start.  That is certainly NOT to say we expected the S&P to get there by Friday! The S&P did not make the close easy going out right at the lows evoking the fear of a strong gap lower Monday.  While a gap down Monday could…

Oil gets crushes while market dips

The Market: A small down day which could have looked worse if not for a late day rally off the lows.  Interesting to see the leaders to the downside were the Dow (DIA) and Russell 2000 (IWM).  We were looking for the market to close just off the lows and then gap down tomorrow for a short-term long opportunity but today’s end of day rally has changed that set-up. Overall we remain cautious on the broad market and believe the choppy trading of late will continue. Energy (XLE) led to the downside, again, as crude oil continues to slide reaching…

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…

Quiet start to the month

Index & Sector performance 11/3/14 The Market: The market started the day slightly higher building on last week’s extremely strong session but the market ran out of steam in the short term and the S&P 500 started pulling back in afternoon trading finishing flat on the session.  All in all it was a low volume quiet session but the Bulls can point to the fact that they didn’t give ground after reaching new highs. We do not expect the remainder of the month to be as quiet as today and would plan for swings in both directions much like October…

Early dip met with strong buying

Index & Sector performance 2/13/14 The Market: The markets began to dip overnight and into early morning trading.  Weaker than expected economic data didn’t help but just as the market officially opened the bottom was put in and the S&P 500 spent the remainder of the day rallying only taking a short midday break before continuing on to made the highs of the day near the close.   The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: ALE, BAM, COTY, CPB, DTE, H, IPG, IPGP, ITT, JMP, LECO, LPNT, MINI, POR, RRGB, SJM, SNI, TRW, VFC, VTR,…

LULU warns and market dives

Index & Sector performance 1/13/14 The Market: The S&P 500 meandered throughout the Sunday evening session, into Monday and even to start the trading day but then around noon EST weakness started to set in and continued to build.  Around 2:30 pm EST we had reached R2 support in the future but we posted at StockTwits that this support did not look like it would hold due to the MACD’s formation.  That support was indeed lost and the S&P 500 futures (ES) lost another 10 points to the day’s lows and 5 points to the close overall netting a 20+…

S&P Futures play MA pinball

Index & Sector performance 12/16/13 The Market: The made strong gains today after what looked like a horrible start to the week.  In overnight trading Sunday the S&P 500 dropped t0 $1754 (March 2014 emini contract) tagging the 50 day SMA and then built a rally off that support.  Surprisingly by the morning the futures had not only regained everything that was lost from Sunday evening’s open but also but in some gains.  Those who do not look at the futures may have never even known of the rough start.  The futures then rallied pre-market to the 20 day SMA…

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…

Small Caps lead move lower

Index & Sector performance 12/11/13 The Market: Strong down day in the market with the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 closing down over 1%.  The Russell 2000 has been leading the charge for the year but has underperformed of late including today posting the largest loss at 1.64%.  After remaining relatively unchanged in overnight and early morning trading, the market started to slip in the pre-market about an hour before the open.  Losses built the remainder of the day with the S&P 500 closing near the lows of the day and through the 20 Day SMA. In economic news…

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…