Merger Monday doesn’t help market
Index & Sector performance 11/17/14 The Market: Despite a very active M&A session, it was yet another very tight trading range in the S&P 500 while the NASDAQ (QQQ) lagged and the Russell 2000 (IWM) led to the downside. In deals we saw Allergan (AGN) agree to be acquired by Actavis (ACT) for a combination of cash and ACT stock which totaled $219 per share. Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) who had also been trying to buy AGN stepped aside not feeling comfortable they could justify the valuation to shareholders. Two more big names in M&A news as Halliburton (HAL) announced it…
Indices take back losses plus
Index & Sector performance 5/22/14 The Market: Overall today was a quiet day in the market which saw green across the entire WSC Scoreboard with the Dow and NASDAQ leading the charge followed closely by the S&P and finally the Russell 2000 which is getting use to lagging. At 2pm EDT the FOMC minutes were released and discussed risks to the economy including U.S. housing, the Russia-Ukraine situation, and China’s economic slow down but this news did not appear to bother traders. Tomorrow is be the biggest economic data day of the week which includes Unemployment Claims and Existing Home…
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…
Fed day snaps S&P 4 day win streak
Index & Sector performance 10/30/13 The Market: A small gap up on the open was quickly sold and the market pulled back but losses were relatively contained until the Fed announcement which sent the S&P spiking lower. Buyers did then step in and used the last hour of trading to help close the index off the lows but not enough to keep from snapping the S&P 500’s 4 day win streak. In economic news, ADP Non-Farm came in lower than expected printing a 130K with 151K the expectation. Core CPI was also light coming in at 0.1% when 0.2% was…
AA kicks off a new earnings season…tomorrow
Index & Sector performance 10/07/13 The Market: The markets started down strong but found early support and rallied into midday but couldn’t hold and press toward Friday’s close and instead sold off during the last hour of trading closing near the early morning slows but just slightly above. Hard to believe we are kicking off another earnings season but Alcoa (AA) will start tings off again Wednesday 10/8/13 after the close. While AA no longer has the significance it once did, it still is known for ushering in the season and many larger more impactful names will then be reporting….
Market follows up gap with more gains
Index & Sector performance 9/17/13 The Market: The majority of today’s action was in the first half hour of trading when the S&P gaped slightly higher and then ran up seeing the majority of the days gains. The remainder of the day the market was able to hold those gains and drift higher on what looked to be an overall light volume day. In economic news, Core CPI came in as expected while headline CPI was actually less than expected with a 0.1% increase when 0.2% was expected. Remember headline reflects food and energy while core strips it out. Tomorrow…
Daily Wrap
DJIA +106.29 (+0.69%) to 15,409.39;S&P 500 +10.46 (+0.63%) to 1,660.06;NASDAQ +20.92 (+0.70%) to 3,011.94 There were stocks moving today but the story was about the broad rally and especially gap higher in the market. At the highs the S&P 500 was up over 20 points from Friday’s close and while not necessarily attributable to one event seemed moe to be a snap back rally which started overseas in response to the previous week’s sell off. The market looks to be in a form of price discovery which at this juncture seems predominantly bullish but it is yet to be seen if the that will be the case and…
Daily Wrap
DJIA +8.60 (+0.06%) to 15,303.10; S&P 500 -0.91 (-0.06%) to 1,649.60; NASDAQ -0.43 (-0.01%) to 2,991.02 The market started with a drop but spent the remainder of the day working to regain those earl losses and while only the Dow was successful, the other indices made a valiant effort closing just ever so slightly lower. In stock news Procter & Gamble (PG) was a big story of the day as their CEO resined and is being replaced by former CEO A.G. Lafley. It seemed as though Wall Street approved of the change as PG closed over 4% higher for the day. In merger news, Valeant (VRX) closed up over…
Daily Wrap
DJIA +106.20 (+0.72%) to 14,818.75; S&P 500 +11.37 (+0.72%) to 1,593.61; NASDAQ +26.40 (+0.93%) to 2,866.95 The market continues its recovery from the recent dip now not also challenging recent highs but making all time highs (closing and intraday). The trend remains strongly in-tact with the SPY up over 12.36% YTD and maybe more astoundingly 16.99% over a rolling 12 month period. In economic news today we saw Personal Spending meet forecasts with a 0.2% increase but Personal Income not only missed forecasts of a 0.4% gain but actually ticked down 0.2%. Lastly, Pending Home sales beat expectations with a 1.5% increase over last month when…
Week in Review
DJIA +90.54 (+0.63%) to 14,512.03; S&P 500 +11.09 (+0.72%) to 1,556.89; NASDAQ +22.40 (+0.70%) to 3,245.00 As some pessimism laid way to optimism regarding the Cyprus situation and at least got our of the market’s way to press higher near 1% for the day. What was also positive to see was the line-up with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq leading instead of the Dow (broader based rally). The stock of the day was no doubt Nike (NKE) in my opinion. Thursday evening after the close NKE posted Q3 EPS of 73c vs estimates of 67c on revenue that met expectations of $6.2B. The company…