April 19, 2024

S&P Futures play MA pinball

Index & Sector performance 12/16/13 The Market: The made strong gains today after what looked like a horrible start to the week.  In overnight trading Sunday the S&P 500 dropped t0 $1754 (March 2014 emini contract) tagging the 50 day SMA and then built a rally off that support.  Surprisingly by the morning the futures had not only regained everything that was lost from Sunday evening’s open but also but in some gains.  Those who do not look at the futures may have never even known of the rough start.  The futures then rallied pre-market to the 20 day SMA…

Low volume day follows the trend

Index & Sector performance 11/22/13 The Market: The market made solid gains trending higher all day to close over $1800 in the S&P 500.  If there was anything concerning about today’s rally, it was the volume which seemed very light but seeing a market move in the direction of the trend on low volume days is not uncommon. There was not much on the Economic data front today besides some fed speak but Thursday the 21st was big.  Unemployment Claims came in better than expected posting 10K below (323K vs 333K) expectations while the previous week was adjusted slightly higher…

S&P 500 narrowly escapes with a gain

Index & Sector performance 10/9/13 The Market: Rumors out of Washington have helped drive the indices of late as investors are looking for more information regarding the government shutdown as well as who may be replacing Ben Bernanke.  News today broke that Janet Yellen will be the next Federal Reserve chairperson taking the place of Ben Bernanke at the end of January 2014.  Initial opinions seemed to be that Yellen will continue on with a more dovish stance for the Fed. Today looked as though the market could not gain traction but at 11:30 am EST the market bottomed and…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +207.50 (+1.38%) to 15,248.12;S&P 500 +207.50 (+1.38%) to 1,643.38;NASDAQ +40.57 (+1.38%) to 2,990.87 Today the markets followed up on yesterday’s moves off the lows with a very impressive strong rally after a jobs number that many touted as “in the sweet spot”.  Meaning that it was not strong enough to force the Fed to revisit their efforts but better than estimates showing an improvement in the employment picture.  While the Jobs number slightly beat estimates, the Unemployment rate ticked up unexpectedly to 7.6% due to more people entering the workforce than expected.  These are presumably people who were previously discouraged workers so if they feel…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +152.29 (+1.05%) to 14,719.46; S&P 500 +16.28 (+1.04%) to 1,578.78; NASDAQ +25.30 (+0.90%) to 2,835.37 Very strong day today in the market today with all major indices moving up roughly 1% or higher.  Today started with a gap higher and steadily climbed all day until 1pm EST when we saw a spike down.  We later realized the spike was caused by a false report by the AP, after their Twitter feed was hacked, that two bombs went off at the White House injuring the President.  Once the market realized the error they snapped back (whole process took a few minutes) but then still…

Week in Review

DJIA +48.92 (+0.35%) to 13,992.97; S&P 500 +8.54 (+0.57%) to 1,517.93; NASDAQ +28.74 (+0.91%) to 3,193.87 Today the markets gaped higher and continued higher closing near highs.  We had positive economic data where the U.S. trade deficit shrank to its narrowest level in nearly three years. I felt the story of the day was one that didn’t really seem to be taking over the headlines but I think it might be a decision that eventually we look back at and say this was a big move that many others followed.  That was NJ Governor Chris Christie will allow the state…

Daily Wrap

DJIA +99.22 (+0.71%) to 13,979.30; S&P 500 +15.58 (+1.04%) to 1,511.29; NASDAQ +40.41 (+1.29%) to 3,171.58 I did not expect today to be as strong as it ended up being.  I thought yesterday’s move might be the start of a more prolonged pullback/consolidation that would then give us a new platform to rally from but today’s rally essentially gained back all of yesterday’s losses.  I still do feel this action is part of a topping process but clearly the market’s won’t go without a fight.  Also with this week being a low data week, earnings will likely be a driving…