The Nightcap
The Market: A very strong session which was led by the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Dow (DIA) which the S&P 500 (SPY) not far behind. It was interesting to see the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight index lag the S&P pointing to the gains being in the higher weighted stocks in the S&P 500 index. Additionally the Russell 2000 (IWM) underperformed posting half the gains of the SPY. In individual sectors the day session was led by the Industrials (XLI) followed closely by the Materials (XLB). Also closing up over 2% on the session was Technology (XLK) and that move looks…
Market continues to grind
Index & Sector performance 2/19/15 The Market: The slow grind into options expiration continues with the S&P 500 (SPY) and Dow (DIA) finishing slightly lower while the Russell 2000 (IWM) finished slightly higher and the NASDAQ (QQQ) led. We would expect to potentially see volatility tomorrow not only due to options expiration but also potential headline risk out of Europe. Overall a mixed session as yesterday’s sector leader to the upside, the Utilities (XLU), was today’s downside leader finishing 1/13% lower while Technology (XLK) followed closely by Consumer Discretionary (XLY) led to the upside. With only Flash Manufacturing PMI tomorrow,…
Eurozone helps U.S. go green YTD
Index & Sector performance 1/8/15 The Market: The Dow (DIA), S&P 500 (SPY) and Nasdaq (QQQ) are all green for the year as of today’s close with the Russell 2000 (IWM) lagging down 0.8%. Considering there have only been about 5 trading days in the new year, this is not saying much but the recent 2 day recovery is impressive and reminiscent of what we saw all 2013 and 2014. Helping the U.S. market today was statements from Mario Draghi that the ECB will discuss adding more or new monetary stimulus at their next rate meeting in two weeks. This…
New Ebola scare helps market off highs
Index & Sector performance 10/23/14 The Market: The market was cruising along today until roughly 2pm ET when the market turned and then started quickly losing ground. Traders pointed to news that a doctor who had treated Ebola patients was rushed to the hospital in New York City. The sell off was not enough to give back all the days gains but we closed well off the intraday highs. Many sectors from the WSC Scoreboard participated in the rally with the biggest gainer the Industrials (XLI) finishing up over 2% helped greatly by Union Pacific Corporation (UNP) and 3M (MMM)…
Choppy session ahead of Jobs
Index & Sector performance 3/6/14 The Market: Overall today was a choppy session which started with an overnight breakout which couldn’t gain steam and retraced back to the breakout levels in early morning trading. The market then found a bottom and rallied to the 1880ES pivot which acted as resistance twice finally sending the index back down toward the original breakout region in late day trading. We expect the choppy trading to continue until the Non-Farm payroll number tomorrow at 8:30am EST. We have consensus estimates currently at 151K with an Unemployment number of 6.6%. Below is a recap of…
Waiting on Washington
Index & Sector performance 9/30/13 The Market: The lack of a deal from Washington on the impending government shutdown seemed to eight on trader’s mind. While the S&P was able to rally after a gap down in early trading, the rally was short lived and around 1:30 pm EST the market again lost ground although was able to remain above the early morning lows In economic data we had Chicago PMI which came in slight better than expected with a 55.7 reading when 54.5 was expected. Tomorrow we have Final Manufacturing PMI, ISM, Construction spending and Total Vehicle Sales. In…
Daily Wrap
DJIA +130.63 (+0.89%) to 14,831.58; S&P 500 +14.89 (+0.94%) to 1,597.59; NASDAQ +37.79 (+1.32%) to 2,911.14 Today was another one of those small gap and run days where the market drifted higher the entire day. There is not much else to say except it seems as though the market was happy to rally on today’s better than expected Unemployment Claims but the focus will quickly flip to the Non-Farm Employment Change numbers. I have estimates at 155K and remember last report came in at 88K. In economic news today, Unemployment Claims came in at their lowest levels in over 5 years and well below analysts expectations. …