March 19, 2024

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…

Retail leads low volume rally

Index & Sector performance 6/4/14 The Market: Another very light volume trading day led by the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 while the S&P 500 climbed to a new closing high. There were mixed results across the sectors but a stand out was the Retail (XRT) sector which closed up 0.76%.  Walgreen (WAG) finished up 4.19% to a new closing high on better than expected Q3 sales along with solid same-store-sales up 5.1%.  A more speculative name in retail also moving higher today was RadioShack (RSH) which closed up 8.63%.  For those looking for a speculative trade, RSH is a prime…

Early volatility wanes, dull day

Index & Sector performance 6/2/14 The Market: Overall a quiet day in the market if you look at the overall performance but that does not show the early volatility the market saw when the S&P 500 futures dropped roughly 10 points at the open to only “V” bottom and spike back up near where the drop occurred.  After that it was tight trading the rest of the day leaving a small up day in the Dow & S&P with the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 closing on the downside. Today there was some drama around ISM Manufacturing PMI after it was…

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…

S&P regains the 50

The Market: Today did not have anything to really speak of in terms of Economic data and the remainder of the week is not necessarily uneventful but also not one of the more data laden weeks we see.  Tuesday morning brings the NFIB Small Business Index, Thursday the Unemployment Claims as well as Fed Budget Balance and Import prices. and Friday rounds out the week with Consumer Sentiment and Inflation Expectations as well as Retail Sales and PPI.  We track the data and the numbers posted in the Events Calendar. Story Stocks: Shareholders of Delta Air Lines (DAL) have had…

Daily Wrap

DJIA  –74.73 (-0.56%) to 13,170.72;  S&P 500 -9.03 (-0.63%) to 1,419.45;  NASDAQ -21.65 (-0.72%) to 2,992.16; Today starting mixed with the markets bouncing from slightly negative to positive and back but around 11 am EST the S&P 500 turned lowered and continued to drift the remainder of the day finally closing down just over 9 points and filling the gap from 12/10/12.  We did have economic data that was better than forecasts (including a 343K Jobless Claims number) but I think it wasn’t so strong that it alone could push the market higher. The stock of today in my opinion…