Market Recap for Thursday, February 21, 2019 U.S. stocks stalled on Thursday, but a minimum of sideways consolidation this week was to be expected given 60 minute negative divergences that I discussed earlier in the week. Before we talk about yesterday's action, check out how the negative... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, February 19, 2019 We saw a bit of intraday back and forth action on Wednesday with the same result - another Wall Street gain. I'm really surprised we haven't seen more selling this week. We're at major price resistance levels... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, February 19, 2019 Materials (XLB, +0.62%) and utilities (XLU, +0.59%) led another Wall Street rally on Tuesday, although our major indices did see a bit of selling into the close. The XLB and XLU benefited from a falling dollar ($USD, -0.40%) and 10... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, February 15, 2019 Friday produced very solid gains as the U.S. government averted a second shutdown as a funding resolution was passed. Also, there was word that US-China trade talks were progressing and any positive developments there are typically well-received by global markets. In an... READ MORE
Understanding relative strength is extremely important in outperforming the benchmark S&P 500. As a sector begins to outperform, it tells us that money is rotating towards that particular sector. One way to visualize this is to look at an RRG chart. It will only take one glance to... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, February 14, 2019 Real estate (XLRE, +0.38%) and communications services (XLC, +0.37%) were the leaders yesterday as Wall Street staged a rally attempt after dealing with an early blow - a very weak December retail sales report. There's one thing everyone should... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, February 13, 2019 The stock market is beginning to exhibit a bit of the borishness that accompanies bull market advances. The Volatility Index ($VIX) remaining below 16 is confirming the reduced level of fear. There were certainly swings intraday yesterday, but the panicked, impulsive-type selling appears... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, February 12, 2019 Another government shutdown was averted and the U.S. stock market reacted quite favorably, as you might expect, with all of our major indices surging higher. Our major indices had quite a day: Dow Jones: +1.49% S&P 500: +1.29%... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, February 11, 2019 Industrials (XLI, +0.53%), energy (XLE, +0.48%) and financials (XLF, +0.31%) were Monday's leaders as bifurcated action was once again present. The clear index leader was the small cap Russell 2000 index (+0.84%) and that's become... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, February 8, 2019 Friday was a solid day for the bulls. It wasn't because we saw large gains, because we didn't. In fact, it was bifurcated action where the S&P 500, NASDAQ and Russell 2000 barely closed higher with gains... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, February 7, 2019 The bears have been waiting for a day like yesterday, which featured a bit of impulsive selling and an accelerating Volatility Index ($VIX). Unfortunately, the bulls may have already inflicted too much damage upon the bears for them to recover fully. I view... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, February 6, 2019 All of our major indices closed lower on Wednesday and we haven't seen that very often in 2019. The losses were minimal and traders continued to have an appetite for the riskier sectors, so it certainly wasn't a huge... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, February 5, 2019 Tuesday was Groundhog Day for those that have seen the movie starring Bill Murray. It was a repeat of what we've seen throughout earnings season. We heard a somewhat disappointing outlook from a market leader, in this case Alphabet (GOOGL, +0.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, February 4, 2019 Technology (XLK, +1.60%) led another broad-based rally on Wall Street Monday as all of our major indices closed higher. There was particularly strong action on the aggressive NASDAQ and Russell 2000 as they gained 1.15% and 1.03%, respectively. 9 0f... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, February 1, 2019 I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking that the market was doomed on Friday after Amazon.com (AMZN, -5.38%) disappointed traders with its outlook during Thursday's after hours trading. After all, AMZN is a Wall... READ MORE
I love the seasonality tool here at StockCharts.com. It can potentially give you an advance notification of a price move before it happens. One of the more striking seasonal tendencies that I've seen has been the unbelievable historical performance of Bookings Holdings (BKNG) from January through May,... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, January 31, 2019 Wall Street surged again on Thursday, buoyed by additional strong earnings reports and surprisingly strong forecasts by a couple of influential names. Facebook (FB, +10.82%) and General Electric (GE, +11.65%) were two of the leaders on the S&P 500.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, January 30, 2019 Wall Street had much to digest yesterday. There was fresh jobs data as the January ADP employment report was released. The news was much better than anticipated. There was the Apple (AAPL) earnings report from Tuesday evening. While the numbers reported were mostly... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, January 29, 2019 It was a bifurcated and trying day on Wall Street. Bifurcation isn't necessarily a bad thing as some indices will simply outperform others on certain days and short-term trends in that regard can mostly be ignored. But one problem throughout this... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, January 28, 2019 It seemed like the bears let a perfect opportunity slip right through their fingers yesterday. Caterpillar (CAT, -9.13%) reported their latest quarterly earnings before the bell and they weren't pretty. Despite beating revenue estimates, CAT posted EPS well below estimates... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, January 25, 2019 Our major indices rallied strongly on Friday, with 9 of 11 sectors rising to support the move. Only two defensive sectors - utilities (XLU, -1.37%) and consumer staples (XLP, -0.40%) failed to participate in the advance. Leading the charge was materials... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, January 24, 2019 Semiconductor stocks ($DJUSSC, +5.10%) soared after a few key earnings reports in the group came in better than expected. Xilinx (XLNX, +18.44%) and Lam Research (LRCX, +15.70%) were two of the best performers, but their results lifted much of the... READ MORE
Note I'm traveling today so my article will be abbreviated. Market Recap for Wednesday, January 23, 2019 It was a fairly volatile session on Wednesday as U.S. indices opened higher, but quickly fell fairly deep into negative territory before rallying in the afternoon. Only the small cap... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, January 22, 2019 Energy (XLE, -2.18%), communication services (XLC, -2.07%) and industrials (XLI, -2.07%) all fell more than 2% on Tuesday as Wall Street had its first significant retreat since the day that Apple (AAPL) warned. Late day buying cut into losses as... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, January 18, 2019 Continuing anticipation of a trade deal with China appeared to fuel very solid stock market action on Friday as all of our major indices pushed higher, as did all 11 sectors. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 led the charge, gaining... READ MORE
Analysts meet with the management teams of companies and then return to their firms and either buy or sell based on the information they gather. It's the primary reason why technical price action precedes fundamental information. If you understand the dynamics on Wall Street, you're in... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, January 17, 2019 Word that the U.S. would ease Chinese tariffs as negotiations wear on helped to reduce stock market stress and resulted in an intraday surge in U.S. equity prices on Thursday afternoon. Quick profit taking followed, but strength resumed into the close... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, January 16, 2019 Late-day selling cut into some of Wall Street's gains, but the bear market rally continued. It's left many wondering whether we're still in a bear market. The technical answer to that question is yes, we're... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, January 15, 2019 We saw an across-the-board advance led by healthcare (XLV, +1.80%), communication services (XLC, +1.66%) and technology (XLK, +1.51%). All of our major indices jumped as NASDAQ shares soared by 1.71%. The S&P 500 rose 1.07%. After... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, January 14, 2019 The losses on Monday were not huge, but there did seem to be selling in most areas of the market. 10 of 11 sectors finished lower as financials (XLF, +0.69%) was the only sector to finish in positive territory. That sector'... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, January 11, 2019 Healthcare (XLV, +0.33%) and consumer staples (XLP, +0.29%) paced a bifurcated market on Friday as the Russell 2000 eked out a 2 point gain. Despite rallying most of the session after a poor start, the Dow Jones, S&P 500... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, January 10, 2019 There was both good and bad action on Thursday. Yes, the bulls should be excited as a short-term price and trendline breakdown did not result in panic or a Volatility Index ($VIX) that surged. Also, all of our major indices remained above their... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, January 9, 2019 Crude oil ($WTIC, +5.18%) continued rolling higher on Wednesday, buoyed at least in part from its positive divergence. Recently, I discussed the likelihood that crude oil prices would move back into the $50-$54 per barrel range and you can see from... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, January 8, 2019 It was another broad-based rally on Wall Street with 10 of 11 sectors finishing higher. Small caps powered ahead 1.53% to lead the action, but the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ gained 1.09%, 0.97% and 1.08%... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, January 7, 2019 Crude oil prices ($WTIC, +1.17%) rallied on Monday, helping energy (XLE, +1.49%) continue its recent surge, but the day clearly belonged to consumer discretionary stocks (XLY, +2.26%) as retail (XRT, +3.10%) and home construction ($DJUSHB, +2.43%) were among... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, January 4, 2019 Friday was a HUGE day for the bulls as nonfarm payrolls came in well ahead of expectations (312,000 vs 180,000), which in no way reflects what the stock market has been saying since Q4 2018 began - that we were heading... READ MORE
Before I look ahead to what we might expect in 2019, let me rewind for a bit and check out last year's forecast. Here's a recap, summarizing a few of my "expectations". I've graded my predictions with a slight curve. Feel free... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, January 3, 2019 Just about every market-related discussion since Wednesday's close has centered around Apple (AAPL, -9.96%)....and for good reason. AAPL is a U.S. stock market icon. Some might argue it is THE icon. When they lowered their revenue guidance substantially... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, January 2, 2019 On a day filled with hope, as traders rang in the new year on Wall Street, the biggest news came after the market closed as Apple (AAPL) warned regarding its upcoming quarter. During the trading day, we saw resiliency for one of the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, December 31, 2018 December 2018 was a rough month to end a very difficult Q4. It was very unusual in terms of historical perspective as we're accustomed to seeing mostly solid action in early December followed by a Santa Claus rally into year end.... READ MORE