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 ($TNX) rising to 7 year highs at its recent 3.11% peak, I only grow nervous when the TNX falls. Why? Well, rising rates are typically a precursor to economic strength. The S&P... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, May 31, 2018 The roller coaster ride of 2018 has suddenly re-emerged this week. After considerable weakness on Tuesday to open this holiday-shortened week, we saw a beautiful bounce-back rally on Wednesday. That felt pretty good from a bullish perspective.....until yesterday's renewed selling.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, May 30, 2018 Remember that Tuesday weakness? Yeah, I didn't think so. Poof!!! It took the U.S. stock market all of one day to essentially erase the scars of that Tuesday selling. The NASDAQ broke out of a bullish flag pattern and the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, May 29, 2018 Political uncertainties in Italy and Spain rattled global markets on Tuesday, leaving the Dow Jones with a loss of nearly 400 points on the session. There was a clear flight to safety, underscored by a massive 16 basis point drop in the 10... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, May 25, 2018 The NASDAQ 100 ($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