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
Market Recap for Monday, March 5, 2018 The Dow Jones surged on Monday, gaining 337 points (+1.37%) to lead all of our major indices higher. Two stalwarts - Caterpillar (CAT, +3.24%) and Boeing (BA, +2.34%) - were the leaders, but we saw 29 of the 30 Dow... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, March 2, 2018 The Dow Jones finished with a 71 point loss on Friday, thanks in part to another very weak performance by McDonalds (MCD). Apparently, their $1, $2, $3 menu is falling short of expectations and it's clearly reflected in recent price action.... READ MORE
THE Question Is this a correction within a bull market or is it the beginning of a bear market? That is THE question that everyone is debating and hoping to answer correctly. There's no crystal ball to know for sure the correct answer. However, the market does provide... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, March 1, 2018 Any time the Volatility Index ($VIX) rises 13%, it's not going to be a great day on Wall Street. Fear equals selling and selling is exactly what we saw on Thursday. There was a bit of a late day rally, but... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, February 28, 2018 Outside of the final two hours on Wednesday, it was a fairly boring day. We gapped higher at the open, sold off to fill the gap, and then moved back into positive territory.....until the final two hours. Selling returned in a big... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, February 27, 2018 During a day filled with renewed selling, especially in the final 10 minutes, there were 3 key takeways as far as I'm concerned. First, the short-term uptrend appeared to have been broken at the end of the day as gap, price... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, March 26, 2018 Monday was a very solid day for U.S. equities. All of our major indices roared to higher levels, led by the 400 point gain on the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU). Eight of nine sectors advanced, with only the defensive utilities group... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, February 23, 2018 After a steady diet of afternoon flops recently, our major indices soared into Friday's close, clearing important overhead resistance in the process. All major indices finished with 1% gains or more, setting the stage for what could be a very solid... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, February 22, 2018 U.S. indices continued to tread water on Thursday, with mixed action among our major indices and sectors. The Dow Jones posted a triple digit gain (165 points), but the more aggressive NASDAQ and Russell 2000 indices both fell fractionally. Volatility ($VIX) subsided... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, February 21, 2018 Well, the U.S. stock market was humming right along.....until the FOMC minutes were released at 2pm EST. Take a look at this intraday chart on the Dow Jones and S&P 500 and I think you'll fairly quickly... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, February 20, 2018 Selling returned to Wall Street as its six day winning streak came to an end. The Dow Jones was easily the biggest loser as Walmart, Inc (WMT) disappointed traders with its latest quarterly earnings report and had its worst trading day in many... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, February 16, 2018 On the surface, Friday's action didn't seem all that bad. While there was bifurcated action, three of our four major indices did finish in positive territory. The aggressive small cap Russell 2000 ($RUT) led the advance. Only the NASDAQ... READ MORE
Fear ramped up with the early February selling and a capitulatory bottom (at least short-term) printed. The Volatility Index ($VIX) doesn't hit the 40-50 zone often and, when it does, it typically coincides with a panicked selloff and bottom. The last time we saw panicked selling (before the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, February 15, 2018 Selling is inevitable during bull markets. After each leg higher, there's typically a period of selling/consolidation. The bulls were spoiled for several months, as the bull market advance continued nearly uninterrupted. There really hadn't been any notable selling... READ MORE