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
Market Recap for Monday, April 9, 2018 Once again, Monday was the tale of two markets. The first half of the day was quite bullish, but it was all for naught as sellers stampeded the bulls in the afternoon session. Our major indices finished with across-the-board gains so if you... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, April 6, 2018 All nine sectors fell on Friday as the Dow Jones tumbled 572 points amid more threats of China tariffs by the White House. China has promised further retaliation if the U.S. remains adamant about imposing tariffs on China imports. This rhetoric back... READ MORE
The start of every quarter represents a big opportunity to me and the reason is simple. Historically, the odds favor a bullish move into earnings season. Before we consider which individual stocks might be poised for a solid advance, let's take a look at history and the Volatility... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, April 5, 2018 The latest recovery attempt continued into Thursday of this week, but weak futures this morning will provide yet one more obstacle for the bulls to overcome. I'll talk more about that in the Pre-Market Action section below. In the meantime, eight... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, April 4, 2018 Welcome back consumer stocks! One day certainly doesn't make a fresh new trend, but it's been awhile since consumer stocks led a rally. Consumer discretionary (XLY, +1.84%) and consumer staples (XLP, +1.56%) were atop the sector leaderboard... READ MORE
Special Note I typically post a blog article every day that the U.S. stock market is open. If you'd like to receive my blog articles as soon as they're published, you can subscribe (for FREE) by scrolling to the bottom of this article, typing your... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, April 2, 2018 It was a big down day on Wall Street with eight of nine sectors down 2% or more. Only the defensive utilities (XLU, -0.77%) were able to minimize its losses, with the more aggressive consumer discretionary (XLY, -2.82%) and technology (XLK,... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, March 29, 2018 The energy ETF (XLE, +2.11%) surged off of key price support at 66.00 and there's reason to believe that this rally could last a bit longer. Crude oil prices ($WTIC) outperformed the XLE during the month of March and... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, March 28, 2018 The U.S. stock market settled down on Wednesday and that could be very good news for the bulls. High volatility ($VIX) has stunned equity traders the past two months after a 15 month period of little volatility. But on Wednesday, the VIX... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, March 27, 2018 I've discussed since early February the difficulty in trading a market with an elevated Volatility Index ($VIX). While returns can be awesome when you make great calls, the opposite is true when your timing is less than perfect. Here's... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, March 26, 2018 It was an impressive rally on Wall Street on Monday. All nine sectors advanced at least 1%. The four aggressive sectors - technology (XLK, +3.80%), financials (XLF, +3.24%), consumer discretionary (XLY, +2.95%) and industrials (XLI, +2.42%) - were the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, March 23, 2018 All of our major indices tumbled on Friday, but none are struggling quite the same as the Dow Jones, which fell another 425 points on Friday to close at its lowest level since November 2017. There are likely three reasons for this relative... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, March 22, 2018 Let me start today's article by saying that the stock market loathes uncertainty. Traders love boring small gains day after day with subtle, anticipated pullbacks to key moving averages or short-term price support levels. You can always tell when the stock... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, March 21, 2018 It was a volatile session on Wednesday, particularly after 2pm EST when the FOMC policy statement was released. In Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's first meeting as Fed Chief, the Fed raised the benchmark funds rate a quarter point from 1.50%... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, March 20, 2018 There weren't huge gains on Tuesday, but given how poorly Monday went, I'd say yesterday was a very solid day. On Monday, we saw the Volatility Index ($VIX) spike more than 20% back above 19 as fear ramped up.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, March 19, 2018 Ok, let's start with the obvious. It was an ugly day for U.S. equities. The Dow Jones, S&P 500, NASDAQ and Russell 2000 fell 1.35%, 1.42%, 1.84% and 0.98%, respectively. The Volatility Index ($VIX)... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, March 16, 2018 There was an industry-wide rally in energy stocks (XLE, +0.89%) on Friday and utilities (XLU, +0.88%) also performed well. The latter looks much better technically, however, as it has broken above its 50 day SMA. There's still much work... READ MORE
The NASDAQ Composite and NASDAQ 100 became the first two key indices to break to fresh all-time highs and their 2018 relative strength can be underscored by this chart: The NASDAQ 100 is seeing money rotate its way in 2018 so it's prudent to focus on this index... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, March 15, 2018 It was just another day of bifurcated action on Wall Street. But this time it featured a strengthening Dow Jones. The Dow gained 0.47%, while the S&P 500, NASDAQ and Russell 2000 fell 0.08%, 0.20% and 0.49%... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, March 14, 2018 The U.S. stock market continued its bifurcated ways on Wednesday. While all of our major indices declined, it was not across-the-board selling. The Dow Jones (-1.00%) saw the brunt of the selling, while the NASDAQ Composite (-0.19%) outperformed by a... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, March 13, 2018 It appears to be a case of "too much of a good thing". Technology stocks (XLK, -1.15%) retreated off of a 60 minute negative divergence and that reverberated throughout most parts of the NASDAQ (-1.02%), which led our major... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, March 12, 2018 While we saw bifurcated action on Monday, it was still mostly bullish action. For starters, the more aggressive NASDAQ (+0.36%) and Russell 2000 (+0.25%) finished in positive territory while the safer indices - Dow Jones (-0.62%) and S&P... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, March 9, 2018 The U.S. stock market was back to its old bull market tricks on Friday as the NASDAQ powered 133 points higher (+1.79%) to close at 7560.81 - its highest ever - and end its correction that began with the high... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, March 8, 2018 It's never a great signal to see the stock market rally and the three defensive sectors - consumer staples (XLP, +0.91%), utilities (XLU, +0.74%) and healthcare (XLV, +0.67%) - sit atop the sector leaderboard. But we also shouldn&... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, March 7, 2018 It was a day of bifurcation, but it was good bifurcation - if that makes any sense. When the stock market jury is split as we saw on Wednesday, I prefer that our aggressive market areas perform well and defensive areas lag. Well,... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, March 6, 2018 Materials (XLB, +1.10%) and consumer discretionary (XLY, +0.69%) led a modest stock market rally here in the U.S. on Tuesday. The small cap Russell 2000 gained more than 1% to once again outperform its larger cap counterparts. The NASDAQ also... READ MORE