March 19, 2024

Russell 2000 lags all other Indices

The Market: The Russell 2000 (IWM) was the only index on the WSC Scoreboard to finish lower on the session which was led by the Dow (DIA). Most of the indices on the WSC Scoreboard finished the session higher but HeathCare (XLV) was hit hard finishing –1.33% lower.  XLV remains only one of two sectors still up YTD but was hurt today by comments from Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who, after a privately held company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, announced a 5,000% price increase in its treatment for toxoplasmosis, called specialty drug prices “outrageous” and vowed to lay out a plan to…

Small Caps lag as market rallies

Index & Sector performance 3/16/15 The Market: A strong performance day as the S&P 500 (SPY), Dow (DIA), and NASDAQ (QQQ) finished up over 1% while the Russell 2000 (IWM) was the laggard finishing up 0.60%.  One of the positive noted on this recent decline in the broad markets was the resilience of the IWM which is close to a new all-time high.  Today could just be the other broad indices catching up to the already outperforming IWM but we cannot help but feel as though today was a perfect set-up for the IWM to lead all names higher and…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +207.50 (+1.38%) to 15,248.12;S&P 500 +207.50 (+1.38%) to 1,643.38;NASDAQ +40.57 (+1.38%) to 2,990.87 Today the markets followed up on yesterday’s moves off the lows with a very impressive strong rally after a jobs number that many touted as “in the sweet spot”.  Meaning that it was not strong enough to force the Fed to revisit their efforts but better than estimates showing an improvement in the employment picture.  While the Jobs number slightly beat estimates, the Unemployment rate ticked up unexpectedly to 7.6% due to more people entering the workforce than expected.  These are presumably people who were previously discouraged workers so if they feel…