Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) was one of the best performing stocks in 2016 and the bullish pattern that's printed in the first five weeks of 2017 suggests the rally hasn't ended just yet. One bearish development today was that AMD broke out above its late December... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, February 1, 2017 U.S. equities staged a recovery on Wednesday after a recent bout of profit taking, but the recovery could've been much stronger after a very solid open. The NASDAQ jumped 40 points at the open after Apple (AAPL) posted results well... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, January 31, 2017 It was a second day of rotation into defensive stocks as leadership came from healthcare (XLV, +1.60%), utilities (XLU, +1.55%) and consumer staples (XLP, +0.48%). Unfortunately, all of the aggressive sectors were lower and that kept a lid on overall... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, January 30, 2017 It was most definitely a day of profit taking across U.S. equities on Monday. All of our major indices finished lower, although an afternoon rally did cut into some of the earlier losses. Still, the Russell 2000 was hit hardest and finished... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, January 27, 2017 Last week was a milestone week for U.S. equities as the Dow Jones closed above 20000 for the first time in its history and the S&P 500 tagged 2300 for the first time as well. But that doesn't... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, January 26, 2017 It was another bifurcated day on the U.S. stock market Thursday as the Dow Jones was able to muster up another gain after piercing the psychological 20000 level on Wednesday. It was a small gain and it wasn't mirrored by... READ MORE
I am always aware of typical historical strength that lies ahead. Along those lines, it's important to note that the Dow Jones U.S. Travel & Tourism Index ($DJUSTT) has been the fourth best industry group in terms of February performance. priceline.com (PCLN), a component of this... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, January 25, 2017 The Dow Jones kept searching for a catalyst to finally break that psychological 20000 barrier and it came in the form of a one-two punch from transports ($TRAN, +1.43%) and financials (XLF, +1.67%) that left no doubt about the strength... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, January 24, 2017 The S&P 500 and NASDAQ both closed at new all-time highs on Tuesday as basic materials (XLB, +2.58%) soared. Freeport-McMoran (FCX) was huge performer in the group and FCX is featured below in the Sector/Industry Watch section.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, January 23, 2017 Materials (XLB, +0.20%) and technology (XLK, +0.18%) were the leading sectors on Monday as our major indices traded in negative fashion throughout the day. The finish, however, was fairly strong as the S&P 500 finished in the upper end... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, January 20, 2017 Basic materials (XLB, +0.89%) led yet another U.S. stock market rally on Friday as the Dow Jones gained close to 100 points to once again approach what could become its first all-time closing high above 20000. After Friday's... READ MORE
My favorite kind of stocks are those that advance and then base for an extended period of time before breaking out. The consolidation period rids the stock of weak holders, providing a much better foundation for a sustainable rally. Check Point Software Technologies (CHKP) fits the bill after reacting quite... READ MORE
There haven't been too many areas of the market that have performed worse than retail stocks over the past month. While the NASDAQ 100 ($NDX) has jumped to record highs over the past month, weak retail stocks in that index like Dollar Tree (DLTR), Walgreens (WBA), O'... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, January 20, 2017 The industrial sector (XLI, +0.73%) was the only sector to finish in positive territory as railroads ($DJUSRR) broke out on massive volume Thursday. CSX Corp (CSX) soared more than 23% after Canadian Pacific's (CP) CEO Hunter Harrison announced he was... READ MORE
I wrote about Fastenal (FAST) in this blog just two weeks ago. This is a stock that had been in a sideways consolidation pattern for many years after a prior uptrend. So I was looking for the next breakout. However, when a stock consolidates for years, you want to see... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, January 18, 2017 Financials (XLF, +0.83%) were back on track Wednesday as mortgage finance ($DJUSMF), life insurance ($DJUSIL), investment services ($DJUSSB) and banks ($DJUSBK) led the equity charge. It was a bifurcated day with the Dow Jones retreating, but the S&P 500, NASDAQ... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, January 17, 2017 Money rotated towards defense on Tuesday as our major indices saw a day of profit taking. The small cap Russell 2000 was hit particularly hard, dropping 1.44%. But all of the key indices were lower as the banks' failure to break... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, January 13, 2017 Friday may have seemed like a ho-hum kinda day as the Dow Jones actually finished with a loss for the session. But there was significant strength in both the more aggressive NASDAQ and Russell 2000, not to mention that the four sector... READ MORE
Banks threatened another breakout on Friday before stalling and dropping after an early morning surge higher. Bank of America (BAC) credited higher interest rates for its earnings beat Friday morning and said it was anticipating significantly higher net interest margins in 2017. So how much higher will the 10 year... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, January 12, 2017 Healthcare (XLV, +0.10%) and utilities (XLU, +0.08%) finished in positive territory and provided sector leadership on Thursday, but the remaining sectors and all of our major indices finished the day in negative territory. Financial stocks (XLF, -0.85%) performed worst as... READ MORE
Stryker Corporation (SYK), a medical technology company, preliminarily reported their latest quarterly results and indicated they'd be ahead of expectations. That announcement resulted in a gap up and breakout above previous price resistance on Wednesday. Over the past couple days, we've seen a bit of selling... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, January 12, 2017 The U.S. Dollar Index ($USD) fell for the fourth time in the past six trading sessions after sideways consolidating for a couple weeks prior. This hesitation and recent profit taking has provided fuel for a rebound in gold ($GOLD) and silver ($SILVER)... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, January 10, 2017 It was another bifurcated market day on Tuesday, but under the surface there was much more bullishness than on Monday. For one, six sectors rose instead of one. Secondly, all of the aggressive sectors gained ground, led by industrials (XLI, +0.42%) and... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, January 9, 2017 Dow 20k watchers were left hanging another day as the NASDAQ was the only major index to gain ground on Monday. And speaking of lone leaders, healthcare (XLV, +0.42%) was the only sector to post a gain as falling crude oil prices... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, January 6, 2017 Let's party like it's 1999.....9. Do you think that big round numbers don't matter on Wall Street? If so, you might want to think again. Since December 13th, the Dow Jones ($INDU) has traded above 19950... READ MORE
I've been writing relentlessly about the relative strength in energy shares (XLE) over the past several months and here I go again. Go ahead and talk about too much supply. Hang onto the weakening demand argument if you'd like. I'm simply following the charts... READ MORE
Normally, I provide a daily blog article every day that the U.S. stock market is open. That eliminates Saturdays and Sundays. I'm making an exception today to share some historical information that I believe you'll find useful as you work your way through 2017. Also,... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, January 5, 2017 The 10 year treasury yield ($TNX) tumbled on Thursday, dropping more than 8 basis points to close at 2.37% - its lowest daily close since December 7th's 2.35% finish. The sudden interest in treasuries could have been the result of... READ MORE
Since the beginning of 2012, Fastenal Co. (FAST) has tested its 48-49 price resistance zone on seven different occasions - most recently four weeks ago - without any success. But this multi-year consolidation follows a prior uptrend so I expect that we'll see a breakout sooner rather than... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, January 4, 2017 Materials (XLB, +1.46%) and consumer discretionary (XLY, +1.33%) were easily the two best performing sectors on Wednesday to lead our major indices to a second consecutive day of across-the-board gains in 2017. There is a very strong correlation between... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, January 3, 2017 Healthcare (XLV, +1.31%) took over sector leadership on Tuesday to open 2017 as the Dow Jones U.S. Biotechnology Index ($DJUSBT) jumped 2.05%. It's not too surprising to historians as January tends to be very kind to both the... READ MORE
Note First, I want to wish everyone a very happy new year! Second, I'm excited to announce that Greg Schnell (think Canadian Technician and Commodities Countdown) and I will be co-hosting a Stock Market 2017 Outlook webinar in mid-January where we'll compare notes and... READ MORE
Technology stocks (XLK) have shown signs of slowing momentum via lower weekly MACD readings while prices have moved higher. Component industry groups like semiconductors ($DJUSSC) and software ($DJUSSW) have similar momentum issues and that contributed to industry weakness as technology was one of the worst performing sectors last week. One... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, December 29, 2016 The 10 year treasury yield ($TNX) closed at 2.48% and hit an intraday low of 2.46% to test its rising 20 day EMA for the first time since early November. Not too surprisingly, the Dow Jones U.S. Banks Index ($DJUSBK)... READ MORE
NVIDIA Corp (NVDA) has been one of the best performers of 2016, nearly quadrupling during the year. Its long-term chart has been phenomenal, but its weekly RSI and stochastic have been overbought since early May. That's a very long time of outperformance and a rest is not... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, December 28, 2016 It's been awhile since this happened, but on Wednesday all nine sectors declined, led by energy (XLE, -1.08%), industrials (XLI, -1.05%) and financials (XLF, -1.02%). The carnage was evenly spread as consumer staples (XLP, -0.61%) and consumer... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, December 27, 2016 Eight of the nine sectors rose on Tuesday with only consumer staples (XLP, -0.02%) losing ground. The NASDAQ and Russell 2000 once again were the leading indices, powered by home construction ($DJUSHB) and renewable energy ($DWCREE). Home construction looks very interesting on... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, December 23, 2016 The Russell 2000 gained 0.65% on Friday to lead the major U.S. indices. The NASDAQ followed with a 0.28% gain while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones pushed higher, but only by 0.13% and 0.07%, respectively.... READ MORE
First, U.S. markets are closed today in observance of the Christmas holiday. Second, my regular Trading Places article which covers the prior days market action, in addition to pre-market action, the current outlook, sector/industry watch, historical tendencies and earnings and economic reports, will be back Tuesday morning... READ MORE
I ran a scan of NASDAQ 100 stocks with RSIs between 40-45 and it returned eight stocks - ATVI, BIDU, FB, JD, PCLN, QVCA, VIAB, VOD. I ran this scan because RSI 40-45 many times offers up great support to an uptrending stock. So the next step, of course,... READ MORE