Market Recap for Monday, October 31, 2016 The S&P 500 only finished down 0.26 points on the day Monday, but it felt a lot worse, mostly because that benchmark index finished very close to its low of the day and only 6 points from MAJOR short- to... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, October 28, 2016 Happy Halloween! Earnings season is well underway and it's clear that certain areas of the market are gaining momentum as a result. Those that benefit from higher interest rates are doing particularly well - both fundamentally and technically. Look no further... READ MORE
There are basic technical analysis 101 principles and perhaps none more significant than the premise of price support and price resistance. During an uptrend, think of support and resistance as you would traveling higher in an elevator in an office building. The ceiling (resistance) on the first level becomes the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, October 27, 2016 All of our major indices were fractionally lower to end the historically bearish October 22nd-27th period. Treasury yields were on the rise as the 10 year treasury yield ($TNX) broke above 1.80% to continue its recent uptrend. Selling in treasuries sent the... READ MORE
Small cap stocks tumbled today, losing 1.23% and far exceeding losses incurred on the other major indices. Since Monday's close, the Russell 2000 has dropped approximately 3% while the benchmark S&P 500 has retreated less than 1%. One hallmark of a bull market is the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, October 26, 2016 The Dow Jones finished in positive territory yesterday while the S&P 500, NASDAQ and Russell 2000 all declined. It was a particularly rough day for the Russell 2000, which fell 0.93%. The bifurcation was also seen throughout our sectors as... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, October 25, 2016 If you own consumer discretionary (XLY, -1.17%) stocks, you probably weren't too happy with your performance on Tuesday. 22 of 23 industry groups within the discretionary sector fell with only travel & tourism ($DJUSTT) escaping the bears' wrath. Media... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, October 24, 2016 Technology (XLK, +0.97%) led the U.S. stock market advance on Monday as mobile telecommunications ($DJUSWC) and software ($DJUSSW) were the primary reasons for the bulls' assault to open what normally is a very bearish week historically. Technically, however, price action... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, October 21, 2016 Consumer stocks were back in charge on Friday as discretionary (XLY, +0.80%) and staples (XLP, +0.54%) were the best and second best performing sectors. Restaurants & bars ($DJUSRU) were among discretionary leaders and just in time too. The DJUSRU had fallen... READ MORE
There are fundamental, technical and historical factors that drive U.S. equity prices. Earnings and interest rates have very clear fundamental impacts. The Fed has done everything in their power to keep interest rates at historically low levels in an attempt to promote growth. We could debate back and forth... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, October 20, 2016 Industrials (XLI, -0.54%) and technology (XLK, -0.46%) were the two weakest sectors on Thursday and this bull-bear battle continues for yet another day with apparently no end in sight. The only sector to finish in positive territory was healthcare (XLV, +0.... READ MORE
Wednesday, after the closing bell, American Express (AXP) posted quarterly results that blew away consensus estimates for EPS and also managed to top revenue estimates. Furthermore, AXP raised its guidance on a forward-looking basis and shareholders are being rewarded today with a gap higher on massive volume. AXP is up... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, October 20, 2016 Energy (XLE, +1.42%) was clearly in charge throughout Wednesday's session as crude oil prices ($WTIC) neared a major breakout at $52 per barrel. This would represent a breakout of a bottoming head & shoulders formation that projects a future price... READ MORE
Market Recap for October 18, 2016 Healthcare (XLV, +1.20%) performed extremely well on Tuesday, despite being the worst performing sector over the past month. There may have been some bottom fishing in the group as United Health (UNH) surged nearly 7% to lead the health providers group ($DJUSHP) to... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, October 17, 2016 The benchmark S&P 500 flirted with key short-term price support at 2120 once again, this time finishing at 2126 as consumer discretionary (XLY, -0.82%) was the weakest sector and also approached key price support. Consumer discretionary is an important sector... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, October 14, 2016 The U.S. stock market ended last week in bifurcated fashion with the NASDAQ and S&P 500 barely finishing in positive territory, while the Russell 2000 lost 0.27%. The Dow Jones was the most bullish index, gaining 0.22% to... READ MORE
About seven weeks ago, Bottomline Technologies (EPAY) produced excellent quarterly earnings results when its top line edged Wall Street consensus estimates and its bottom line crushed them. Market participants were expecting 9 cents per share and management delivered a huge beat - to the tune of 18 cents. That doubling... READ MORE
We've entered a very strong historical part of the year for our major indices and most sectors and industry groups. Today, I want to focus on one of the best of the best, the Dow Jones U.S. Steel Index ($DJUSST). Average DJUSST monthly gains over the past... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, October 13, 2016 It got a little scary during Thursday's morning session as key support was lost on an intraday basis. Fortunately for the bulls, it wasn't lost for very long as U.S. equities rallied and printed hammers across the board.... READ MORE
My favorite indicator, other than the combination of price and volume, is definitely the MACD. I've studied it for years and I use it as a very important momentum indicator in my trading strategy. It's mostly a lagging indicator as it uses prior closing prices to... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, October 12, 2016 Considering the selling that began early Monday and continued all day Tuesday, Wednesday provided some relief to the bulls. The U.S. market did finish in bifurcated fashion with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 gaining fractionally while both the NASDAQ... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, October 11, 2016 There was a lot of carnage on Tuesday for sure. Every sector declined, led by a very weak healthcare sector (XLV, -2.51%). Biotechs ($DJUSBT) were primarily responsible for the sector's underperformance as this aggressive part of healthcare tumbled 3.27%... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, October 10, 2016 Crude oil ($WTIC) rose more than 3% on Monday and energy (XLE, +1.57%) was easily the best performing sector as a result. Utilities (XLU, +0.83%) saw surprising strength as did REITs. The strength for the XLU and REITs, however, is not... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, October 7, 2016 It was another down day on Friday for Wall Street, but there were no technical breakdowns to suggest we'd see follow through this week. Instead, we saw the materials sector (XLB, -1.86%) endure a painful session after two decent days... READ MORE
There is no such thing as a guarantee when it comes to stock trading. However, using technical analysis as a predictive tool to manage your risk is the key to success in my opinion. Let's take EnCana Corp (ECA) as an example. ECA lost more than 15% over... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, October 7, 2016 It was mostly a flat day, although basic materials (XLB, +0.82%) managed to produce a stronger gain on a relative basis. Paper, aluminum and commodity chemicals were the three industry groups helping to lead the materials sector. While commodity chemicals ($DJUSCC) have... READ MORE
The Dow Jones U.S. Life Insurance index ($DJUSIL) broke above 650 for the first time in 2016, buoyed by suddenly surging 10 year treasury yields ($TNX). Leading the charge in the group is MetLife (MET), which at today's high had gained 33% since its post-Brexit low near... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, October 5, 2016 Well, the market rotation continues unabated. It was bounce back day on Wednesday, although no key levels of price resistance were cleared. Volume did accelerate, however, as a shorter-term triangle unfolds on the S&P 500. You can check out the recent... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, October 4, 2016 Over the past week, energy (XLE, +4.41%) and utilities (XLU, -5.70%) have been at opposite ends of the stock market spectrum, while all of the other sectors have been fairly close to the flat line. Pacing energy has been the Dow... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, October 3, 2016 Q3 performance was fairly solid, especially on the NASDAQ where the strength in technology shares carried the load. Q4 didn't start off quite so well as each of our major indices finished down and eight of nine sectors were lower. The... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, September 30, 2016 Financial (XLF, +1.37%) and energy (XLE, +1.36%) shares paced Friday's advance to close out September on a very strong note for U.S. equities. Like most of the summer, September was a bifurcated month, one in which two sectors... READ MORE
On a weekly closing basis, Antero Midstream Partners LP (AM) has vacillated between support near 18.00 and resistance at 28.00 for the past two years. While the Dow Jones U.S. Pipelines Index ($DJUSPL) still has miles to go to reach its high from two years ago, the... READ MORE
Technology stocks (XLK) produced gains of more than 10% in the third quarter of 2016, more than double that of any other sector. Industrials (XLI) were the second best group, posting a quarterly gain of 4.80%. We all know the bigger names in technology, so this article will focus... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, September 29, 2016 Healthcare stocks (XLV, -1.76%), utilities (XLU, -1.50%) and financials (XLF, -1.40%) led a broad-based decline on Thursday with energy (XLE, -0.17%) the only sector to escape relatively unscathed. In particular, biotechnology and pharmaceutical shares were weak with the latter... READ MORE
Energy stocks (XLE) have been lifted the past couple days due to OPEC agreeing to stem production in an attempt to balance supply and demand. It's difficult to say whether it'll actually work, but thus far the stock market likes what it's hearing. Energy... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, September 28, 2016 Energy shares (XLE, +4.32%) soared on Wednesday to their largest single day gain of the year as crude oil ($WTIC) gained more than 5% on the back of OPEC's agreement to curb oil production. This was the first such agreement... READ MORE
Market Recap First, I'd like to thank everyone who attended ChartCon 2016, making it a HUGE success! It was great interacting with folks from around the globe via Guidebook and I can't wait to have the opportunity to do it again! I will be back on... READ MORE
Crude oil prices ($WTIC) have been hovering between $40-$52 per barrel for the past six months, but the bottoming reverse head & shoulders pattern is telling us to watch closely to see if we can get a confirming breakout on this pattern above neckline resistance at $52. In the... READ MORE
It's nice to see a heavy volume gap higher to break a downtrend. It can be a very strong signal that sentiment has changed on a particular stock or industry group. While renewable energy stocks ($DWCREE) remain technically-challenged, one of its components - Sunrun (RUN) - has certainly... READ MORE
Special Note I continue to move into ChartCon 2016 mode, so bear with me as all of us here at StockCharts.com prepare to descend upon California. My travel day is tomorrow so I will not likely post at all. Of course, there's always the possibility of a... READ MORE