Market Recap for Thursday, May 31, 2018 The roller coaster ride of 2018 has suddenly re-emerged this week. After considerable weakness on Tuesday to open this holiday-shortened week, we saw a beautiful bounce-back rally on Wednesday. That felt pretty good from a bullish perspective.....until yesterday's renewed selling.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, May 30, 2018 Remember that Tuesday weakness? Yeah, I didn't think so. Poof!!! It took the U.S. stock market all of one day to essentially erase the scars of that Tuesday selling. The NASDAQ broke out of a bullish flag pattern and the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, May 29, 2018 Political uncertainties in Italy and Spain rattled global markets on Tuesday, leaving the Dow Jones with a loss of nearly 400 points on the session. There was a clear flight to safety, underscored by a massive 16 basis point drop in the 10... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, May 25, 2018 The NASDAQ 100 ($NDX) led the action on Friday and last week, thanks in large part to Netflix (NFLX) and a couple of chipmakers - Intel Corp (INTC) and Micron Technology (MU). NFLX surged to an all-time high earlier in the week, easily... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, May 24, 2018 The U.S. stock market will be closed on Monday in observance of Memorial Day. Thanks to all of the veterans, current and past, for their service to our country. :-) Wall Street traded much lower in the opening 90 minutes, then spent... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, May 23, 2018 Technology (XLK, +0.74%) rallied on Wednesday to move back near two month highs and creep closer to its all-time high close. Both software ($DJUSSW) and internet stocks ($DJUSNS) performed well to lead the rally: The green arrows highlight the rising 20 day... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, May 22, 2018 After early morning strength, Wall Street sellers returned and took their toll on many areas of the market, but most notably energy (XLE, -1.33%) and industrials (XLI, -1.23%). Heavy construction ($DJUSHV) was a key casualty in the industrials after trying to... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, May 21, 2018 Until recently, the industrials (XLI, +1.51%) had been lagging its aggressive sector counterparts rather badly. That has definitely changed in May and we now have all key sectors with buy signals. Relative weakness remains in the defensive healthcare (XLV, +0.10%), consumer... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, May 18, 2018 Last week ended with plenty of bifurcation. Strength was once again seen across the small cap universe as the S&P 600 SmallCap Index and Russell 2000 both finished the week at all-time high closing levels. The larger cap Dow Jones and... READ MORE
There's a raging bull market going on right now, but you might not realize it if you're stuck in the S&P 500. Take a look at the chart below of the large cap benchmark S&P 500 and its small cap counterpart, the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, May 17, 2018 There's a new sheriff on Wall Street and it's the energy ETF (XLE, +1.51%). Its SCTR has soared to 97.1 with the second best SCTR (XLK - technology ETF) at 86.8. The distance between the two... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, May 16, 2018 We saw another advance on Wall Street on Wednesday as key indices continue to clear important hurdles. Perhaps the most significant yesterday was the Russell 2000, which ended its bullish continuation pattern as expected - with a bullish breakout to the upside: It&... READ MORE
Reminder If you like my daily Trading Places blog articles and you haven't done so already, please subscribe below. It's a great feature that StockCharts.com provides for all of the blogs here, and it's FREE and easy. Simply scroll to the bottom of... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, May 14, 2018 It was a day of bifurcated action, although the Dow Jones did manage to close higher for the 8th consecutive trading session, the longest such streak in 2018. One look at sector performance, however, illustrates the mixed action. Four sectors finished higher while... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, May 11, 2018 Considering the gains that the bulls enjoyed earlier in the week, Friday's end-of-day numbers weren't too shabby. Only the NASDAQ (-2.09 points) lost ground. Over the six prior sessions, the NASDAQ moved from its intraday low on May... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, May 10, 2018 It was a very bullish day on Wall Street. I suppose you could nit pick and point to utilities (XLU, +1.41%) outperforming on an up day, but it's difficult to ignore the solid participation during yesterday's rise. All... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, May 9, 2018 Was Wednesday the day that marked the resumption of the 9 year bull market? Some might argue it began with the bottom last week, while others might argue it hasn't begun because the Dow Jones and S&P 500 are... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, May 8, 2018 There are days when the stock market seems to go nowhere and are relatively meaningless. Tuesday wasn't one of those days. While the Dow Jones and NASDAQ gained a measly 2.89 and 1.69 points, respectively, and the S&... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, May 7, 2018 There was plenty of green on Monday, adding to the gains we saw late last week. The only areas of the market that struggled were the defensive consumer staples (XLP, -0.62%) and utilities (XLU, -0.52%). On the flip side, money rotated... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, May 4, 2018 For many weeks, we've seen the stock market seemingly ignore great earnings news and retreat. Highly visible companies like Boeing (BA), Caterpillar (CAT), Intel (INTC) and Microsoft (MSFT) gained initially after blowout earnings, then stumbled after traders attempted to figure out... READ MORE
Throughout 2017 the U.S. Dollar Index ($USD) was falling and aiding profits on multinational companies found on the S&P 500. But it was time for the dollar to rise, as evidenced by a surging U.S. 10 year treasury yield ($UST10Y) vs. Germany's 10 year... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, May 3, 2018 The Dow Jones was the only major index to finish in positive territory on Thursday, but it could have been so much worse. In the first 90 minutes of trading, the S&P 500 found itself back below 2600 and within just... READ MORE
Market Recap for May 2, 2018 Well, the Fed spoke and Wall Street listened. While there weren't any dire warnings from the Fed about inflation, simply acknowledging that inflation could be returning to its target 2% rate spooked traders for an afternoon. If you were wondering if the... READ MORE
Market Recap for May 1, 2018 The Dow Jones led the early selling on Tuesday as traders were not impressed with quarterly earnings results from two pharma giants, Pfizer (PFE, -3.31%) and Merck (MRK, -1.51%). Both were down considerably more in the morning session, but rebounded to make... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, April 30, 2018 Monday was a "rinse and repeat" session from Friday. We opened higher, sold off for 90 minutes, then consolidated the balance of the day. Since Thursday's close, the NASDAQ has fallen 0.75%, but it seems like much more... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, April 27, 2018 The news heading into Friday couldn't have been much better. The initial reading of Q1 GDP came in stronger than expected at 2.3% vs. 2.0%. We had blowout earnings from key leaders including Amazon.com (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, April 26, 2018 Two familiar areas - technology (XLK, +1.82%) and consumer discretionary (XLY, +1.62%) - saw money rotate their way on Thursday, with especially strong action in both internets ($DJUSNS, +4.11%) and semiconductors ($DJUSSC, +2.35%) leading the technology space. Discretionary stocks... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, April 25, 2018 Wall Street was able to find equity buyers yesterday, despite the 10 year treasury yield's ($TNX) first close above 3.00% since 2014. The Volatility Index ($VIX) settled back down after approaching 20 for the second consecutive day. It has closed... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, April 24, 2018 Pre-market action on Tuesday was solid and that's just about where the bullishness ended. With the Kentucky Derby just around the corner, let me summarize Tuesday's action from the opening bell in different fashion: "And they're... READ MORE
Market Recap for April 23, 2018 A significant bullish breakout in the U.S. Dollar ($USD) occurred on Monday and the push higher is likely to just be beginning. Before I look at possible ramifications, let's look at the chart itself: Monday's close was the USD&... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, April 20, 2018 The big news on Friday was the bond market. The 10 year treasury yield ($TNX) closed just a tad above 2.95% and that was the highest close since late-2013/early-2014. The TNX has climbed another couple basis points in early action this... READ MORE
One of the most over used cliches in the stock market, in my opinion, is "go away in May". First of all, it's simply bad investment advice. Since 1950 on the S&P 500, the May 1st to July 17th period has produced annualized returns... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, April 19, 2018 The U.S. stock market has been solid throughout April thus far, so seeing a Thursday drop of 0.57% and 0.78% on the S&P 500 and NASDAQ, respectively, shouldn't be too alarming. And it wasn't.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, April 18, 2018 Our major indices showed signs of tiring on Wednesday as its seasonal pre-earnings run from April 1st to April 18th concluded. Five sectors managed to finish in positive territory, including the red-hot energy sector (XLE, +1.57%) and industrials (XLI, +1.04%). The... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, April 17, 2018 Futures were solid heading into Tuesday's pre-market action as Netflix reported stellar Q1 results after the closing bell on Monday. Then, on Tuesday morning, home construction ($DJUSHB) received great news as both March housing starts and building permits easily exceeded expectations.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, April 16, 2018 Utilities (XLU, +1.37%) and materials (XLB, +1.34%) led rather odd market behavior on Monday. The good news is that all nine sectors finished higher. The bad news is that our most aggressive sectors struggled on a relative basis. Financials (XLF, +0.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, April 13, 2018 U.S. stocks fell on Friday the 13th, but managed to cut intraday losses in half (or more) during the final 45 minutes of the session. Most of our major indices lost roughly 0.50%, except for the benchmark S&P 500,... READ MORE
Note I write an article here in this blog each and every morning that the stock market is open. It's typically published during pre-market action, between 8:30am-9:00am EST. I've been doing it since September 2015 and I do my best to keep you up-to-date... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, April 11, 2018 Well, the S&P 500 tried to clear its 20 day EMA again. And it failed....again. That marks the 5th consecutive day of failed 20 day EMA breakouts. Given that futures are higher this morning, this benchmark index appears headed for... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, April 10, 2018 It seems like forever, but the energy sector ETF (XLE, +3.31%) finally did it - it closed above 69.00! Can we please say goodbye to the 66-69 trading range? I didn't realize this until yesterday, but the XLE'... READ MORE