U.S. indices have gone nearly straight up since early October, are extremely overbought near-term, and have needed reason for a pause. They may have received their reason overnight with U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. I refrain from political discussions because it honestly is not necessary nor productive. As technicians,... READ MORE
Executive Market Summary * Futures were relatively flat today, but we have seen some slight selling to close out a very solid 2019 * Small and mid caps are leading on a relative basis and clinging to fractional gains * All sectors are fairly flat to close out the year * Gold ($GOLD) and... READ MORE
Executive Market Summary * Futures were slightly higher this morning * Sellers have dominated the action since the opening bell, although small caps are bucking the trend and slightly higher * Financials (XLF) are unchanged and the relative leader today * Energy (XLE) and healthcare (XLV) are the hardest hit sectors * Semiconductors ($DJUSSC) and... READ MORE
Whether a group looks strong or weak can easily be debated and it's what makes the stock market go round and round. Nondurable household products is one example. Is it breaking out or breaking down? This could be an interesting debate and it really gets to the heart... READ MORE
Executive Market Summary * Pre-market action is pointing to another strong open as the year end rally continues * Dow Jones futures are pointing an 80 point gain at the open and NASDAQ futures are showing relative strength once again * A couple smaller biotechs - Flexion Therapeutics (FLXN) and Immunomedics, Inc. (IMMU)... READ MORE
Executive Market Summary * We're up again today with leadership from the NASDAQ; small caps lag * Most sectors are higher with technology (XLK) showing a slight lead * Apple's (AAPL) leadership is helping the NASDAQ and computer hardware ($DJUSCR) * Banks ($DJUSBK) are strong with the 10 year treasury... READ MORE
Executive Market Summary * Today is an abbreviated session with the equity market closing at 1pm EST; many global equity markets are closed today * Wall Street opened slightly higher, but has been trading near the flat line * There are no economic reports of significance due out today as the 10 year... READ MORE
Note During the holidays, I'll be publishing my EarningsBeats.com Daily Market Report here in my Trading Places blog. I hope you enjoy it. Happy holidays! Executive Market Summary * We're seeing another solid day as seasonal strength really begins to kick in * The Dow Jones is... READ MORE
I established an Aggressive portfolio of 10 equal-weighted stocks in 10 different industry groups on May 19th. Every 3 months thereafter, on August 19th and then again on November 19th, I repositioned the portfolio with new relative leaders. That's the concept behind the portfolio. Stick with leaders in... READ MORE
I was looking at the performance of NASDAQ 100 stocks after the close on Friday and realized that Tesla (TSLA) closed above 400 for the first time in its history. Volume was unusually high all week long as TSLA gained 13% to clear resistance in the upper 300s. TSLA had... READ MORE
Records continue to fall every day. The S&P 500 has now gained 350 points off its October 3rd low. I don't know if it's going to stop any time soon, so I'd want to remain fully invested, especially given the tremendous bullish... READ MORE
If you're trying to think of the best performing semiconductor stock ($DJUSSC), you're heading in the right direction. The DJUSSC has been outstanding throughout much of 2019, gaining nearly 50%, rising from 2888 to 4234 at yesterday's close. Semiconductor stocks actually take up the... READ MORE
One week ago, I indicated that I'd have 5 trading candidates for anyone who signed up for a $7 30-day trial. It was similar to the Monday Setups that I had previously provided on MarketWatchers LIVE, the flagship StockCharts TV show that I had hosted for two years.... READ MORE
I am extremely bullish as we head into 2020. Everything is lining up, but there are two factors that I believe will help us help our members - both professionals and individual traders. First, the Fed has finally moved into the dovish position it should have been in one year... READ MORE
It made sense to underweight healthcare (XLV) throughout much of 2019, but that's no longer the case. In fact, my proprietary momentum ranking system ranks healthcare behind only technology (XLK) and financials (XLF) in terms of sector momentum. The StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR) has the same ranking as... READ MORE
It wasn't too long ago that no one wanted to own a drug retailer ($DJUSRD), but after the group pushed to 9 month absolute and relative highs, a few stocks in the group suddenly became fashionable once again. Perhaps the biggest turnaround came in the form of PetMed... READ MORE
The S&P 600 Small Cap Index ($SML) broke out again on Friday, closing above 1000 for the first time since October 9, 2018. Its all-time high close is 1098, so the index still has a lot of work to do. I believe this work is likely to be... READ MORE
One of the great features of our service at EarningsBeats.com is maintaining a Strong Earnings ChartList (SECL) for our members and running scans against it daily to identify trade setups. I do a lot of research every quarter, tracking those companies that beat Wall Street consensus estimates as to... READ MORE
My favorite ratio to watch in order to gauge the market's appetite for growth stocks is the Russell 1000 Growth ETF vs. the Russell 1000 Value ETF (IWF:IWD). When this ratio is moving higher, we want our portfolio to be weighted more toward growth. When the opposite... READ MORE
I have found there are no guarantees when it comes to earnings and how a company will report. We can make educated guesses, though, especially when you consider that Wall Street has access to management teams before their "quiet period". A quiet period is simply the time from... READ MORE
Welcome to December! It's hard to believe we're one month away from a new year and a new decade. While 2019 has been exciting for investors and traders, recovering from that massive Q4 2018 decline, I believe 2020 will be very solid as well. We'... READ MORE
I know it seems like a daunting task, but it's not nearly as hard as it seems. Obviously, the first step requires finding a method or strategy that works. At EarningsBeats.com, we've found what works for us. It's combining our strengths with StockCharts.... READ MORE
For years, this question was left unanswered. Honestly, I couldn't figure out this answer for a long, long time. I've come to realize through years of experience, however, that I simply needed to watch the action after the gap and show a little patience. It seems... READ MORE
Last week when I identified the Top 10 stocks in our Model, Aggressive, and Income portfolios, I provided a bonus to EarningsBeats.com members when I unveiled my first ever Value Portfolio. I'm primarily a momentum trader and you rarely associate momentum stocks with value stocks. But the... READ MORE
Over the past few months, we've seen some new market leadership emerge. If you're simply following the S&P 500, then you probably haven't noticed much difference. We consolidated a bit in August and September before then resuming the uptrend. It's... READ MORE
This is a very interesting question. Many lagging groups will outperform for a day, week, or even a month, but then they fall right back into their relative downtrends. If you're trading stocks within sectors and industry groups showing poor relative strength, you're fighting an uphill... READ MORE
10 years ago, I traded the stock market much differently. I didn't maintain a "Strong Earnings ChartList" to trade exclusively from like I do now. I considered relative strength, but it wasn't a primary focus. But I look at the overall stock market and... READ MORE
While there's no sugar coating that the market's sudden shift in August from growth stocks to value stocks cut into my returns, I'm still quite proud of my Model portfolio's performance after its one year anniversary yesterday. On November 19, 2018, I... READ MORE
The good news is that this breakout in the S&P 500 is littered with mini-breakouts in various sectors and industry groups. One of the latest industry groups to join the party is diversified industrials ($DJUSID), home of General Electric (GE). The former closed at a 52 week high... READ MORE
If you've followed my blogging and shows, then you know how bullish I've been and still am. During all the trade war, Fed, recession, and political worries, I've called for new all-time highs. I'm not stopping there. Don't be shocked... READ MORE
I remain quite bullish about 2020 prospects and one reason is the relative strength of our 5 aggressive sectors - technology (XLK), consumer discretionary (XLY), communication services (XLC), financials (XLF), and industrials (XLI). Wall Street has not positioned itself for anything other than a market advance ahead, so you should... READ MORE
Any time you can beat the benchmark S&P 500, it's saying something. Many professionals managing money set the S&P 500 as the standard and try to beat it....and most fail. It's not an easy thing to do. But I do believe... READ MORE
In my last article, I illustrated the relative breakout in industrials vs. the benchmark S&P 500. The market goes through cycles and leadership rotates - even during the same bull market. StockCharts.com recently added SCTR scores for industry groups, so if you're unsure as to... READ MORE
We've witnessed a major shift in relative strength among sectors and industry groups and in order to prepare for the overall market strength in late-2019 and into 2020, we need to recognize this fundamental shift. Below I've identified a major thematic change in the U.S.... READ MORE
When the biotechs ($DJUSBT) get rolling, make sure to jump on board for the ride! The DJUSBT broke out above 600 at the beginning of 2012; by the time the run was over 3 1/2 years later, it had gained 167%! Since the middle of 2015, this same group... READ MORE
I've maintained a bullish stance throughout the past 21 months of stock market turbulence. My signals simply reminded me to ignore the negative media and all the attempts to take the stock market lower. Don't follow CNBC's rhetoric. If they were right, we'... READ MORE
I wrote an article earlier this morning in the free EarningsBeats Digest newsletter that showed the Invesco S&P SmallCap Industrials ETF (PSCI) outperforming its larger cap counterpart industrials sector ETF (XLI) over the past few months, a change from what we'd grown accustomed to since August... READ MORE
Well, at first it simply means that there were enough sellers to hold off the bulls on their initial attempt to join the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ in breakout territory. I wouldn't worry a whole lot, however, as I believe it's just... READ MORE
There are two groups, when they get rolling, that you do not want to miss. The first is semiconductors ($DJUSSC), which have exploded through resistance over the past two weeks and are higher by roughly 30% since June. KLA Corp (KLAC), Teradyne (TER), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Lam Research (LRCX)... READ MORE
I generally look to prior price highs in determining overhead resistance, but in the case of all-time highs, there are none. So where do we go next? From a bigger picture outlook, we can use pattern measurements. Based on the recent ascending triangle breakout, I'd look to 3225... READ MORE