April 19, 2024

Low volume rally led by Russell 2K

Index & Sector performance 5/20/14 The Market: An overall light volume day was led to the upside by the Russell 2000 followed by the NASDAQ 100.  In individual sectors, Utilities (XLU) led to the downside followed by the Consumer Staples (XLP) while the transportation index was the largest gainer with components Matson (MATX) and JetBlue (JBLU) up the most gaining 3.05% and 2.42% respectively.  MATX and JBLU both appear to be viable long trade candidates going forward. This is an extremely quiet Economic data week with a lot of Fed speak.  Earnings will play a role for individual stocks so…

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,…

Market dips early but fights back

Index & Sector performance 1/21/14 The Market: This is the type of market that frustrates both the Bull & the Bears.  Strong moves in each direction serve to whip weak traders our of their positions.  After a very light futures trading session Monday with the Stock Market closed, the S&P 500 futures pressed higher in late Monday/early Tuesday trading.  Just before the open the futures printed $1844 and then started to sell off right at the open.  The market finally found a bottom near noon EST but only after losing roughly 18 points from the pre-market highs.  The S&P 500…

Fed open to scale back causes pullback

Index & Sector performance 11/20/13 The Market: Initial optimism on better than expected economic data pre-market saw early selling as the S&P pulled off the highs of the day in the first hour of trading and then the market meandered waiting for the Fed minutes to be released.  After the 2pm EST announcement the market began selling off as the Fed showed they are prepared to scale back on the rate of asset purchases.  The S&P 500 was able to use late trading to close a few points off the lows of the day. In economic data, Core CPI came…

Icahn comments spark late day sell off

Index & Sector performance 11/18/13 The Market: It was a fairly quiet day in the markets until a comment from Carl Icahn appears to have started a late day sell off after noting that he could see the markets have a “big drop”.  This sent the S&P 500 down roughly 12 points in the final hour of trading In economic date the NAHB Housing Market Index fell slightly short of estimates posting a 54 when 56 was expected.  Today also some a mix of Fed speak and that continues tomorrow including Fed Chairman Bernanke at 7pm EST and President Obama…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -70.73 (-0.47%) to 15,010.74;S&P 500 -9.77 (-0.59%) to 1,646.06;NASDAQ -13.69 (-0.38%) to 3,589.09 The S&P 500 started today with a gap lower but quickly rallied to not only retake the early losses but move into positive territory for the day.  Then around 10:30 am EST the market started to roll and spent the remainder of the day under pressure and ultimately ended up closing below the 50 day SMA. No economic data to report and this is a light econ data week, at least for the US. Apple (AAPL) was able to buck the broad market’s downward trend and close slightly higher…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -19.12 (-0.12%) to 15,335.28; S&P 500 -1.18 (-0.07%) to 1,666.29; NASDAQ -7.99 (-0.26%) to 3,020.97 Today the market somewhat consolidated after its ramp into options expiration last Friday.  Initially it looked as though it could be another strong move higher as early trading was choppy but then we spiked higher into the noon EST time.  That spike was eventually lost and we ultimately close near flat on the day.  It was interesting to see the Russell 2000 be the strongest index and only one to close higher.  Small caps leading might bode well for ultimately higher prices.  Tomorrow is Tuesday and interestingly…

Week in Review

DJIA +43.85 (+0.33%) to 13,435.21; S&P 500 +7.10 (+0.49%) to 1,466.47; NASDAQ +1.09 (+0.04%) to 3,101.66 Hopefully slow and steady will win the race when it comes to the Jobs market.  Adding another 155K non-farm jobs  was just a tick above analysts expectations and the revised Unemployment rate for November to 7.8% held into December. The market started the morning somewhat choppy while seemingly digest the morning’s economic data and then started a near uninterrupted climb closing near highs of the day. Supervalu (SVU) gapped higher and closed up over 13.5% on a Wall Street Journal report that private equity firm Cerberus Capital is close…

Daily Wrap

DJIA -21.19 (-0.16%) to 13,391.36; S&P 500 -3.05 (-0.21%) to 1,459.37; NASDAQ -11.69 (-0.38%) to 3,100.57 I noted last night that after the previous two days that the market should look to consolidate.  Not that it is bearish or due for a massive decline but should consolidate and that is what today was.  We started lower, rallied to up by midday and then closed weak, all the wall essentially hovering right around flat.  The Fed minutes were released providing some excitement but ultimately I didn’t see anything “market moving” but more just some interesting insight for the econ-nerdy.  This type…

Daily Wrap

Today the markets Started with a gap down over 10 points on the S&P 500 but quickly bottomed and started to rebound.  That rebound took the index all the way back to positive territory resulting in a nearly 20 point rally off the lows.  The index also retook the 200 Day MA but around 11:15 am EST the rally peaked and the midday slowly drifted back down morphing into a hard sell off into the close and leaving us at 1374.53 on the S&P 500.  This marks the 3rd day closing below the 200 Day SMA.  The 60 minute SPY…