The NightCap
The Market: Overall it was another tight trading range session but the Russell 2000 (IWM) continued its underperformance and finished down over –1%. It appears that traders may be on hold until the FOMC statement and rate decision tomorrow. Transportation (IYT) sector was the hardest hit on the WSC Scoreboard as the sector ETF finished down -2.65% followed by yesterday’s biggest loser, Energy (XLE), which closed down -1.2%. The biggest gaining sector on the session was HealthCare (XLV) which finished up 1.84% and was helped by Allergan (AGN), Biogen Inc (BIIB), Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (VRTX), and Mylan NV (MYL) which all…
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…
Can EPS decouple market from Oil?
Index & Sector performance 1/12/15 The Market: We noted in the Thursday end-of-day write-up that the strong gains had to do with positive comments from Mario Draghi as well as Oil prices managing to stabilize for the second straight session. Unfortunately after managing to hold in Friday, Oil prices resumed their recent slide today finishing below $46/per barrel. As we have noted in other write-ups and you can see elsewhere, Oil’s sharp decline brings in concern over global growth and particularly U.S. earnings. Speaking of earnings, Aloca (AA) is scheduled to kick off the earnings season tonight and below you…
Retail leads low volume rally
Index & Sector performance 6/4/14 The Market: Another very light volume trading day led by the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 while the S&P 500 climbed to a new closing high. There were mixed results across the sectors but a stand out was the Retail (XRT) sector which closed up 0.76%. Walgreen (WAG) finished up 4.19% to a new closing high on better than expected Q3 sales along with solid same-store-sales up 5.1%. A more speculative name in retail also moving higher today was RadioShack (RSH) which closed up 8.63%. For those looking for a speculative trade, RSH is a prime…
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…
AA kicks off a new earnings season…tomorrow
Index & Sector performance 10/07/13 The Market: The markets started down strong but found early support and rallied into midday but couldn’t hold and press toward Friday’s close and instead sold off during the last hour of trading closing near the early morning slows but just slightly above. Hard to believe we are kicking off another earnings season but Alcoa (AA) will start tings off again Wednesday 10/8/13 after the close. While AA no longer has the significance it once did, it still is known for ushering in the season and many larger more impactful names will then be reporting….