U.S. equities are doing what U.S equities normally do. They're rising as we approach earnings season. I wrote a ChartWatchers article recently, "Wall Street Doesn't Want You To See These S&P 500 Performance Numbers", summarizing the typical pre-earnings outperformance. Be... READ MORE
I view relative strength as one of the most important aspects of technical analysis. It helps me visualize where the money is going. When you review a price chart, it's very easy to see if a stock is going up or going down. As an example, let'... READ MORE
I'm a big believer in patterns. I follow continuation patterns primarily, because I'm a momentum trader. So as stocks consolidate, I try to identify the pattern that shapes in order to gain insight into a possible measurement. That's what technical patterns offer - measurements/... READ MORE
Non-StockCharts.com Members EarningsBeats.com members that DO NOT also have a StockCharts.com membership have asked for Excel downloads for use on platforms other than StockCharts.com. Within 24 hours, we will have all of our ChartLists available for Excel download. Executive Market Summary * Futures were bifurcated overnight and... READ MORE
One of our key ChartLists at EarningsBeats.com is our Raised Guidance ChartList. As the name implies, it tracks companies that raised their revenue and/or EPS expectations at some point over the last 90 days. Many times, once a stock raises guidance, profit-taking kicks in, traders grow impatient and... READ MORE
The latest FOMC meeting has come and gone. Fed Chair Jay Powell capped it off by recognizing that inflation was hotter than expected and even signaling that the Fed is ready to hike rates by the end of 2023, stepping up its earlier April guidance of "no rates hikes... READ MORE
Listen, NVDA has been one of the strongest market performers in 2021 and I believe there's a very good chance it goes much higher. But if I wanted to buy it, I'd likely wait a week or so. There are never any guarantees, but the number... READ MORE
In The News It was a light week for headlines as there wasn't much in the way of either economic or earnings news. Thursday did provide us our next glimpse into the inflation story as May CPI jumped 0.6%, ahead of the 0.4% expectation. That left... READ MORE
Friday, June 18th is the next monthly options expiration day and, if it's like recent option-expiration Fridays, then get ready for crazy reversals. To best illustrate how the madness around options expiration works, we'll review past results. Before I do that, let me explain that I... READ MORE
Leading stocks go through consolidation periods where weak hands forego their shares as impatience takes over. It's never fun to watch the stock market break to new highs while your stock(s) consolidate and fail to gain ground. A trained technical eye, however, needs to recognize continuation patterns... READ MORE
Catching an industry group as it bottoms and begins to lead the market can be very profitable. We're seeing tons of rotation in the stock market, which is the biggest reason why selling doesn't last long. Money comes out of one group and then rotates into... READ MORE
The S&P 500 reached a high on Friday of 4233.45, narrowly eclipsing the all-time high close of 4232.60 from May 7th. Unfortunately for the bulls, selling in the final few minutes ruined the breakout attempt. This false breakout, ever so slight, could be quite ominous for... READ MORE
There are two sides to every coin. Similarly, I can look at the market from an optimistic or pessimistic perspective. Each provides different answers as we look into June 2021. The Bullish View The first reason to be bullish is as simple as it gets. We're in a... READ MORE
I'm a momentum trader, so I look for consistent uptrending patterns before I commit capital. As I've said many times before, I'm most comfortable trading leading stocks in leading industry groups. These are the stocks that Wall Street favors and, in my opinion, offer... READ MORE
I suppose the answer really depends on your level of expectation and your time frame. If you're looking for technology to outperform the benchmark S&P 500 over the next few months the way it did throughout much of 2020, then you'll likely be quite... READ MORE
From a long-term perspective, it's hard to imagine that it's a bad thing for your stock to be setting a fresh 52-week or all-time high. But from a short-term trader's perspective, there could be a world of difference. Two keys are the candlestick and... READ MORE
The stock market has a history of running higher in anticipation of earnings season. On the S&P 500, for instance, here are the annualized returns for the following periods since 1950: This is 71 years of daily data, which is certainly statistically relevant. I don't believe... READ MORE
Listen, anything can happen in the stock market, but AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) has a short-term issue to worry about. Options expire on Friday and there are a TON of options bets placed on AMC for May. At the moment, millions of dollars of net in-the-money call interest exists, and... READ MORE
Rotation is always a part of a secular bull market. It's honestly the glue that holds everything together. During bear markets, when money rotates away from an area of the market, it usually just moves to the sidelines. Bull markets are different, however, as money typically finds its... READ MORE
So let me set the stage. At EarningsBeats.com, we're tracking every earnings reaction for companies with $1 billion or more in market capitalization. Through yesterday's close (May 7th), we've now reviewed about 1600 earnings reactions. We've studied them by sector and... READ MORE
I could provide a solid list of earnings season failure nominees like semiconductors ($DJUSSC), software ($DJUSSW) and medical equipment ($DJUSAM). However, I'm going to give the award to gambling ($DJUSCA). Since the big banks kicked off earnings season on April 14th, we've seen 8 gambling stocks... READ MORE
It very well could be. In my Daily Market Report (DMR) to EarningsBeats.com members on Thursday, I discussed this very possibility. I do not believe we're at any MAJOR top, but our major indices have had a significant "pre-earnings" run higher since late March and... READ MORE
Right now, we're seeing dozens of companies report quarterly results each day. That's going to change this week as hundreds of companies get set to report earnings every day. How can you keep up with all of it? Well, StockCharts.com's platform provides the... READ MORE
Once a previously-leading stock begins a journey to the downside, you want to be careful pulling the buy trigger too soon. These downtrends can last awhile, so expecting a quick recovery and buying a pullback can create a lot of short-term pain in your pocketbook. The better option is to... READ MORE
Over the long haul, earnings and Fed policy have more to do with stock market direction than anything. Focus on these two and you'll be just fine. Tune everything else OUT. President Biden's possible tax hike on capital gains was a problem..... for an hour on... READ MORE
If you held Skechers (SKX) into its quarterly earnings report, which was delivered after the bell on Thursday, congratulations! It was truly a blowout report, like so many others. Wall Street, however, has chosen to reward SKX and its shareholders with the stock up more than 16% at last check.... READ MORE
Earnings season is underway and if the first few days are any indication, we're going to see a LOT of blowout numbers. Just since Wednesday, we've seen a couple dozen companies trounce Wall Street consensus estimates. One of the best earnings reports that I've... READ MORE
I'm not a big fan of catching a falling knife. And right now, Plug Power (PLUG) is more like a machete. But there are both short-term and long-term reasons why we could see a major bottom print on its chart. Let's start with the technical long-term... READ MORE
Investing isn't easy and there are so many choices, even if you narrow your choices and are only looking at ETFs (Exchange-traded funds). The number of ETFs is staggering. How do you put a portfolio together to match your own personal investing style? That's a difficult... READ MORE
When I see a long-term winning stock sell off for a period of weeks, or even months, I always question the motive. If institutions want to buy a large position in a company, it takes time to do so. They don't simply put a market order in for... READ MORE
Why am I always so bullish? I'm asked this question in many different ways, but I'm very happy to explain my stance - and it's quite simple. Because the stock market goes up a WHOLE LOT MORE than it goes down. Instead of constantly... READ MORE
I love earnings season. Perhaps it's the CPA inside of me, having practiced in public accounting for a couple decades. Maybe it's the excitement of new fundamental information being released that alters the valuation of companies. But mostly, I think, it's the short-term inefficiency... READ MORE
Growth stocks have been hammered on both an absolute and relative basis over the past several weeks, but as we move into earnings season, should we pay attention to rising AD lines? The accumulation/distribution line, developed by Marc Chaikin, doesn't really look at whether the stock is... READ MORE
I'm sure that most of you have heard that old Wall Street adage "buy on rumor, sell on news." Well, it's never truer than with earnings. Wall Street meets with management teams prior to the end of the fiscal quarter and gathers a lot... READ MORE
The NASDAQ has been the unwanted third wheel the past month or so as the Dow Jones has moved above 32000 and 33000 and the S&P 500 has approached 4000. Of course, it's all about perspective and the NASDAQ has been the leader since the pandemic... READ MORE
From a short-term trading perspective, options expiration presents a host of opportunities. The market makers were at it again this week, looking under every seat cushion for a few extra bucks. The key is to beat them to the seat cushion. Let's rewind to our EarningsBeats.com March... READ MORE
We've been in a solid secular bull market for years, but the past couple years have been difficult for sure. Still, we've seen plenty of stocks breaking out over and over again (ie, autos, renewable energy, etc.). But not all stocks have participated, even those in... READ MORE
At the time of my last ChartWatchers article two weeks ago, the 10-year treasury yield ($TNX) had just closed at 1.46% after reaching an intra-week high at 1.61%. Well, we didn't stop there. The TNX had a big day on Friday, gaining nearly 11 basis points... READ MORE
In last weekend's Part 1 of 2, I discussed what divergences are and provided an analogy. Divergences can flash a refueling warning light during a long-term journey higher. If you recall, I illustrated it by using Starbucks (SBUX) as an example: Divergences can mark long-term tops, but I&... READ MORE
When you look into a technician's "tool kit", you'll likely find a divergence analysis. Generally speaking, any time you have higher prices and lower (fill in the blank) or lower prices and higher (fill in the blank), there's either a negative divergence... READ MORE