The NightCap
The Market: Overall a dull session as the markets remainder in a tight range for the entire day but we expect to see volatility in many individual names as this will be a very active earnings week with many big names reporting. As always we will highlight the names that reported after the close as well as those scheduled to report pre-market tomorrow but please remember that you can often look ahead a few days under the Events Calendar section. If an active earnings wasn’t enough, we also have an active Economic Calendar with the FOMC Statement and Rate decision…
China’s action spills into global markets
The Market: Stocks opened lower after China suffered its worst losing day in over 8 years but the S&P managed to find a bottom right at the 200 day SMA and has so far rallied off the lows with upside action continuing into the after market. It will be interesting to see how China’s market reacts today and if the S&P can keep the momentum going through the overnight trading and into tomorrow’s open. Also don’t forget we have the FOMC Rate decision and Statement on Wednesday the 29th (full Economic Calendar below). Leading to the downside in today’s session…
Market rollercoaster continues
Index & Sector performance 4/1/15 The Market: For those who do not track the futures you would think that today started off with a small gap that then snowballed into something much larger but the first shot lower was actually yesterday evening when the S&P futures dropped nearly 30 points in roughly an hour. Amazingly the index recouped nearly all the losses by the open but then started to make its way back toward those overnight lows which is the action we saw today. Monday’s Wrap noted that we were looking for a pullback in the markets and that the…
Sharp snap back rally — SPY up YTD
Index & Sector performance 3/12/15 The Market: Strong performance today with the Russell 2000 (IWM) leading the charge for the 2nd straight day followed by the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY). Friday will be an interesting session as traders will have to decide how they want to end the week. In the very short term the SPY looks stretched so we would consider using a gap up tomorrow morning as a (very) short-term selling opportunity. In individual sectors it was the Financials (XLF) which led the way finishing up 2.13% followed closely by Consumer Discretionary (XLY) which ended up…
QQQ & IWM reach new highs
Index & Sector performance 2/26/15 The Market: More churn today in the markets but again the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) showed more strength than the S&P 500 (SPY) with the QQQ and IWM reaching new 52-week closing highs on the session. Crude oil lost over 5% today which helped send the Energy (XLE) sector 1.88% lower. We noted in our 2/18/15 nightly recap when the XLE was trading above $81 that we would look for a pullback toward $78 as a buying opportunity. Closing today at $79.35, we would ideally like to see lower levels before dipping into…
Week starts slow – GS grounds BA
Index & Sector performance 2/23/15 The Market: Overall a flat session with the NASDAQ (QQQ) and Russell 2000 (IWM) finishing slightly higher while the Dow (DIA) and S&P 500 (SPY) finished lower. The main drag on the DIA today was Boeing (BA) which finished down 2.26% after Goldman downgraded the name to Sell with a $132 price target. In individual sectors it was a mixed bag with the Industrials (XLI) leading to the downside finishing down 0.43% while the Utilities (XLU) led to the upside finishing up 0.68%. As we posted tonight in the Charts section, the XLU held a…
Revisiting December’s lows
Index & Sector performance 1/6/15 The Market: Oil appears to still be affecting the broad market and causing caution in investors as crude, which lost the psychological $50 level yesterday, traded down over $2 in today’s session. Yesterday we remarked that a gap down in the morning could be a short term trading opportunity to the long side but unfortunately we opened flat to slightly up, negative the set-up, and then continue to crawl higher in the first hour of trading before the indices began to sharply lose ground. Today’s sharp drop eventually found support at the mid-December trading lows…
Back test of the 20 & down
Index & Sector performance 12/11/14 The Market: Strong optimism in early trading was attributed to better than expected Retail Sales numbers and Unemployment Claims along with the stabilization of oil but in midday trading, after the S&P 500 (SPY) had rallied back to re-test its 20 day SMA, oil started to slide and took the SPY with it. While the table above shows the SPY up on the session, as it currently stands those gains have been entirely erased in the aftermarket. We will be watching the overnight session to see if the S&P can stabilize, reverse, or if it…
Late rally masks tough session
Index & Sector performance 10/15/14 The Market: A very volatile session in today’s trading which saw the S&P 500 (SPY) down 3% before a sharp last hour rally helped the index only finish down 0.75%. Without that late rally, the SPY would have been down year-to-date at the close. As has been the case of late, the Russell 2000 (IWM) outperformed finishing the session up over 1%. The best performing sector in today’s session was Energy (XLE). Like the SPY, the XLE was down much more earlier in the session but finished the session up 0.76% after a strong last…