March 19, 2024

Few market participants on Yom Kippur

The Market: Overall it was a low volume range bound trading session as volume was light and many market participants were out in observance of Yom Kippur. Crude oil traded sharply lower today which hurt the XLE but the biggest loser on the WSC Scoreboard was Materials (XLB) which finished down -2.13%.  The biggest losers in the XLB included CF Industries (CF), Mosaic (MOS), and Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) closing down -6.58%, -5.67%, and -5.64% respectively but it is also worth noting that 4 of the top 5 weighted stocks in the XLB were down over 2% on the session.  You can…

Huge intraday swings

The Market: As expected, volatility continues and while we would not expect 100 point S&P days to become a common occurrence we do expect to see sharp swings both up and down. Our current expectation is that the market will ultimately revisit this morning’s lows is not make new lows but in the short-term the market is very oversold and should stage some sort of rally — not just intraday like today but on a closing basis over a few days.  That rally will be very telling and if weak we could be setting up for much much lower and…

Market Shrugs off initial gap down

Index & Sector performance 5/28/15 The Market: Today started with a gap down but the major indices on the WSC Scoreboard were able to rally back to near flat on the session with the NASDAQ (QQQ) leading to the downside.  After two very volatile session, it appeared the market used today to take a breather.  FYI, tomorrow is the last trading day of the month. Transportation (IYT) was the clear loser on the WSC Scoreboard as it finished nearly 1% lower on the session.  We generally do not look to catch falling knifes and YTD the IYT has not been…

QQQ & IWM reach new highs

Index & Sector performance 2/26/15 The Market: More churn today in the markets but again the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) showed more strength than the S&P 500 (SPY) with the QQQ and IWM reaching new 52-week closing highs on the session. Crude oil lost over 5% today which helped send the Energy (XLE) sector 1.88% lower.  We noted in our 2/18/15 nightly recap when the XLE was trading above $81 that we would look for a pullback toward $78 as a buying opportunity.  Closing today at $79.35, we would ideally like to see lower levels before dipping into…

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…

S&P rejected @ 50 DSMA

Index & Sector performance 10/6/14 The Market: The markets start the session in positive territory but the S&P 500 (SPY) quickly ran into resistance at the 50 day SMA and spent the remainder of the day pulling back.  The laggard on the session was the Russell 2000 (IWM) which was the first to go negative on the session finishing down 0.86%  Today’s high in the SPY now becomes a key level to watch along with the 50 day SMA and downward sloping 20 day MA.  This could end up being a choppy trading week. In individual sectors, Transportation (IYT) was…

Early volatility wanes, dull day

Index & Sector performance 6/2/14 The Market: Overall a quiet day in the market if you look at the overall performance but that does not show the early volatility the market saw when the S&P 500 futures dropped roughly 10 points at the open to only “V” bottom and spike back up near where the drop occurred.  After that it was tight trading the rest of the day leaving a small up day in the Dow & S&P with the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 closing on the downside. Today there was some drama around ISM Manufacturing PMI after it was…

Tech & Small Cap lead, S&P new highs

Index & Sector performance 5/27/14 The Market: After a lull in Economic releases last week and a Holiday Monday, today started with a slew of Economic data which posted better than expected results for Durable Goods orders, Home Price Index, and Flash Services PMI.  The S&P which was already trading slightly higher preceded to rally into the early morning before seeing a midday dip followed by an end of day rally that took the S&P500 futures back to and slightly above the earlier highs. Tomorrow we get a break from Economic news but Thursday will be another big day with…

Increased chatter of a 10+% decline

Index & Sector performance 4/3/14 The Market: A pre-market pop in the S&P 500 emini sent the index as high at 1887.50ES but that move was short lived and the index was trading lower by the open and continued lower throughout the early and midday trading sessions.  It wasn’t until the afternoon trading when the S&P bottomed and marched higher into the close.  The emini has continued higher in after hours trading closing in on the pre-market highs essentially negating the entire move lower in today’s session. It is worth noting that the ECB left rates unchanged and noted they…

Choppy trading leaves the indices flat

Index & Sector performance 2/26/14 The Market: A choppy trading session to saw a sell off toward the open which ultimately was bought until midday when the S&P started to make its way back down toward and below the previous intraday lows.  Again buyers stepped in and were able to close the S&P 500 essentially flat on the day.     Companies scheduled to report earnings pre-market:     Analyst Comments: