Market Recap for Wednesday, July 25, 2018 All of our major indices finished higher on Wednesday, as did all sectors. Relative strength was found in several areas including industrials (XLI, +1.52%), healthcare (XLV, +1.28%) and technology (XLK, +1.25%). Waste & disposal services ($DJUSPC, +5.04%) surged on... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, July 24, 2018 Earnings are dominating the headlines and the action on Wall Street. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 had been underperforming its NASDAQ and Russell 2000 counterparts throughout much of the second quarter. As a result, their positive earnings surprises seem to... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, July 23, 2018 Financials (XLF, +1.38%), especially banks ($DJUSBK, +1.86%), led Wall Street on Monday as the rising 10 year treasury yield ($TNX) provides hope for increasing profits in the quarters ahead for this influential industry group. There's a very strong and... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, July 20, 2018 Software ($DJUSSW, +0.86%) led once again on Friday, thanks in large part to another impressive quarterly earnings report from technology (XLK, +0.03%) giant Microsoft Corp (MSFT). It was a fairly narrow technology advance as software and internet ($DJUSNS, +0.25%) were... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, July 18, 2018 We were mostly higher on Wednesday, although gains were slight. One exception was the NASDAQ, which finished less than one point lower. Otherwise, we saw green. Despite mostly higher prices, leadership really came from just two sectors - financials (XLF, +1.60%) and... READ MORE
Special Note I will be on a short mini-vacation beginning Friday, July 20th. Therefore, I will not be writing a Trading Places blog article that day. I will be back on Monday, however, with my latest recap and thoughts on the stock market. If you enjoy my blog, please subscribe... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, July 16, 2018 The Dow Jones saw buying late in Monday's session, pushing this index of giants into positive territory. Leadership was clear. Large money center banks performed well and JP MorganChase (JPM) was easily the best perfoming Dow Jones stock, gaining nearly 4%... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, July 13, 2018 The Dow Jones moved back above 25000 and the S&P 500 cleared 2800 for the first time since February 2nd on the backs of two unlikely heroes. Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), the newest member of the Dow Jones, and Walt Disney... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, July 12, 2018 Those looking for a bear market to develop were dealt a serious blow on Thursday as the NASDAQ forged to yet another all-time high. The Russell 2000 was on the verge of doing so earlier this week as it reached an intraday all-time... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, July 11, 2018 Utilities (XLU, +0.90%) moved higher in an otherwise down day, highlighted by the latest trade headlines in which the U.S. announced another $200 billion in Chinese imports to be subject to a 10% tariff. While the initial reaction was obviously negative,... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, July 10, 2018 The good news from yesterday is that the Russell 2000 hit an intraday all-time high at 1708.56, edging out intraday highs from June 20th and 21st. The bad news? Sellers took over from there. The record took place in the opening minutes... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, July 9, 2018 In the famous words of Yogi Berra, it was "deja vu all over again" as financials (XLF, +2.29%) and industrials (XLI, +1.86%) returned to the top of the sector leaderboard. Life insurance ($DJUSIL, +2.78%) and banks ($DJUSBK, +2.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, July 6, 2018 It was a solid close to the week on Friday, especially on the tech-laden NASDAQ where that index rose 101 points, or 1.34%. Biotechnology stocks ($DJUSBT, +3.74%) surged on news of positive trial results for Biogen's (BIIB, +19.63%... READ MORE
Let's first talk about a trading strategy that doesn't work. I steer clear of companies that struggle to meet Wall Street expectations and there's a very simple reason why. Management helps Wall Street set their expectations. So when companies miss their targets, it'... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, July 5, 2018 U.S. equities rallied on Thursday, led by the NASDAQ and Russell 2000, which gained 1.12% and 1.15%, respectively. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 tacked on lesser gains. Technology (XLK, +1.41%), consumer staples (XLP, +1.38%) and... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, July 3, 2018 U.S. equities started the holiday-abbreviated trading session on Tuesday quite nicely with gains across each of our major indices. But that strength deteriorated throughout the day and, by the close, all but the small cap Russell 2000 had finished in negative territory.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, July 2, 2018 A brief recap from yesterday: All of our major indices climbed higher with renewed leadership from the NASDAQ and Russell 2000. Technology (XLK, +0.89%) and utilities (XLU, +0.71%) led the action, while energy (XLE, -1.47%) was very weak. Given the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, June 29, 2018 The first half of 2018 ended on Friday in bifurcated fashion, which is fitting given that most of 2018 has seen bifurcated action thus far. The NASDAQ gained nearly 9% in the first six months, with the Russell 2000 not too far behind,... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, June 28, 2018 The selling episode went according to plan, with many higher risk areas taking on most of the bears' wrath. The three worst performing sectors over the past week led the rebound on Thursday. Technology (XLK, +1.22%), financials (XLF, +0.87%) and... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, June 27, 2018 Trade war fears are dominating the headlines, but U.S. Dollar Index ($USD) strength is quietly making the biggest news of all. The rising greenback is potentially good news as it signals that the U.S. economy is humming along, and is perhaps... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, June 26, 2018 Tepid gains on Wall Street allowed trade fears to subside for a day, but technical indications suggest this is likely just a temporary breather. The Dow Jones gained 30 points on the session, while the small cap Russell 2000 and tech-laden NASDAQ produced... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, June 25, 2018 We ended a bearish historical period yesterday with.....well.....bearishness. It was an ugly start to the day on more trade threats and, with an hour left in the session, the Dow Jones was down nearly 600 points. Buyers did emerge in that... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, June 22, 2018 Bifurcated market action once again permeated Wall Street, but with much different results this time. Instead of the Dow Jones lagging badly and finishing in negative territory, this large cap index broke its eight session losing streak and gained 119 points (+0.49%... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, June 21, 2018 The Dow Jones closed lower for the 8th consecutive trading session, this time falling 196 points. It's been a steady decline, spurred by fears of a trade war with China and a rising U.S. Dollar Index ($USD). Trade tensions tend... READ MORE
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Market Recap for Tuesday, June 19, 2018 Treasuries (TLT, +0.58%), utilities (XLU, +0.99%), consumer staples (XLP, +0.53%) and healthcare (XLV, +0.26%) highlighted the strength on Tuesday. Wall Street suffered painful losses at the opening bell for a second straight day, but also rallied off those early... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, June 18, 2018 Trade war fears are picking up again this morning and it's rattling equities worldwide. It created a bit of a stir on Monday morning as futures were weak, signaling a rough start for U.S. equities. That's exactly what... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, June 15, 2018 We finished Friday's action with lower major indices, primarily the result of a very weak energy sector (XLE, -2.15%). Unfortunately, that masked one of the best absolute and relative performance days in consumer staples (XLP, +1.28%) since the January... READ MORE
It seems simple enough. Buy stocks/ETFs that are outperforming the benchmark S&P 500. Well, that's part of it for sure. But it really goes a lot deeper than that. StockCharts.com provides you a myriad of ways to evaluate relative strength. I tend to use... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, June 14, 2018 Utilities (XLU, +1.24%) led a bifurcated market on Thursday, but the real story of June has been consumer discretionary (XLY, +1.04%). The XLY has not only posted gains each of the 10 trading days in June thus far, but it'... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, June 13, 2018 Another Fed day is in the rear view mirror and now we know the following. The Fed expects to raise interest rates two more times in 2018, bringing the total number of hikes to 4, as opposed to the 3 they discussed in... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, June 12, 2018 The Dow Jones lost one point yesterday, but our other key indices finished with gains, led higher by the NASDAQ (+0.57%) and small cap Russell 2000 (+0.46%). It was another boring day of bullish action with perhaps one slight negative -... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, June 11, 2018 U.S indices finished with across-the-board gains on Monday despite a final 30 minute selloff that saw the Dow Jones trim a 70 point gain down to just 5 points. Still, stocks managed to start the week with minor gains ahead of a... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, June 8, 2018 In a rare development, consumer staples (XLP, +1.23%) led Wall Street higher on Friday. Over the past three months, the XLP has fallen 5.78% and no other sector is close to consumer staples' ineptitude. The XLP has been the shunned... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, June 7, 2018 The Dow Jones gained 95 points, extending its recent rally, on the strength of McDonalds Corp (MCD) and Chevron Corp (CVX). MCD announced layoffs and Wall Street cheered the likely improvement to its bottom line by sending MCD higher by 4.37%: MCD... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, June 6, 2018 It was another solid bull market rally on Wall Street on Wednesday, this time with the Dow Jones conglomerates leading the action. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 346 points, or 1.40%, topping 25,000 and closing at its highest level since... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, June 5, 2018 It's the perfect storm. Technology (XLK, +0.35%) sets another all-time high record close to lead the NASDAQ to the same. Strengthening economic conditions are creating a higher interest rate environment. That means money rotates from bonds to stocks. The dollar... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, June 4, 2018 Consumer stocks - discretionary (XLY, +1.12%) and staples (XLP, +0.83%) - led Wall Street higher on Monday, especially the NASDAQ, which closed above 7600 for the first time in its history. The highest candle body on the NASDAQ, however, is at... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, June 1, 2018 Technology (XLK, +1.70%) and materials (XLB, +1.53%) led Wall Street higher on Friday after the May nonfarm payrolls beat expectations, providing a lift for those anticipating further economic strength in the months ahead. Semiconductors ($DJUSSC, +2.42%) and internet stocks ($DJUSNS,... READ MORE
While many market pundits seemed to grow very concerned about the 10 year treasury yield ($TNX) rising to 7 year highs at its recent 3.11% peak, I only grow nervous when the TNX falls. Why? Well, rising rates are typically a precursor to economic strength. The S&P... READ MORE