March 19, 2024

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…

Off the 200 Day and up

Index & Sector performance 2/2/15 The Market: The S&P 500 (SPY) started the session lower but found support just slightly above the 200 day SMA which has not been visited since October 2014.  After an initial pop and then pullback the index rallied the remainder of the session to finish over 30 points off the lows.  So far in the after hours the index is holding the gains and consolidating.  Today’s action should be very promising for long traders and you know your stops — below today’s lows. The leading sector on the WSC Scoreboard was Energy (XLE) finishing up…

XLE hit hard on overall mixed session

Index & Sector performance 10/27/14 The Market: A rumor Thursday of a doctor infected with the Ebola virus being rushed to an NYC hospital helped take the market off the highs and then in Thursday’s overnight session it was confirmed that the doctor indeed had Ebola which sent the futures spiking lower but by Friday morning they were off the lows from the overnight session and marched higher closing near Thursday’s intraday highs. Today was much more of a muted consolidation session with the S&P 500 cash index remaining within a roughly 13 point range which while not historically small…

Lots of data yields flat finish

Index & Sector performance 7/30/14 The Market: Lots of Economic Data/announcements in today’s session but when the dust settled it was surprisingly a flat session with the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) leading while the Dow (DIA) finished slightly lower and the S&P 500 (SPY) finished slightly higher. The leading sector on the WSC Scoreboard was Retail (XRT) finishing the day up 1% however Retail remains the only individual sector on the WSC Scoreboard that is down for the year.  The laggard was the Utilities (XLU) and decisively so finishing the day down 1.69%.  We remain interested in some…

Tech stocks lead sell-off

Index & Sector performance 5/6/14 The Market: Last night we noted 1872ES as a key level to watch.  If it held as overnight support then the index could look to target Friday’s 1886ES highs but if lost then we could see Monday’s lows of 1860.50ES tested and then 1850ES.   In overnight trading the S&P was only able to reach 1881.50ES falling short of Friday’s highs and by the open the futures were sitting at our key 1872ES level.  After some initial jostling around the 1872ES level, the index started to roll over in midday trading reaching as low as…

Nasdaq & Russell lead indices lower

Index & Sector performance 4/25/14 The Market: All the major indices were down in Friday’s action with the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) leading the way lower.  In individual sectors the Transportation index (IYT) and Consumer Discretionary (XLY) were  the biggest losers. The transports are an interesting case as they were one of the sectors making new highs recently but after an outside day yesterday the index followed through strongly to the downside today.  Leading the index lower was JetBlue (JBLU) closing down 5.38%.  After missing EPS yesterday, Reuters announced today that the Flight attendants will be looking…

6 day win streak ends..new starts?

Index & Sector performance 4/23/14 The Market: Today’s session snapped a 6 day winning streak for the S&P 500 but the losses were small and maintained a very orderly structure throughout the day.  In after hours trading, the futures traded sharply higher helped by Apple’s (AAPL) earnings which beat EPS and revenue along with announcing a 7 for 1 stock split, increase in the buyback, and an 8% increase in the dividend. With tonight’s overnight action, the S&P 500 is now closing in on the all time highs .  Focus will continue to be on earnings especially with a very…

Analyst Comments

If you see a symbol that interests you in this list then make sure to check out the Upgrades/Downgrades section for the complete list and details! Upgrades: NKE, IVNYY, GES, IACI, RIMM, KMX, PLT, PNR, AIV, CPT, AVB Downgrades: CREE, TASR, TKR, COL, INGR, ATVI