Market Recap for Wednesday, August 24, 2016 Healthcare (XLV, -1.57%) was one of two sectors losing more than 1% on Wednesday as the Dow Jones U.S. Biotechnology Index ($DJUSBT) fell 2.46%. There were many losers in the biotech space, but Amgen's loss of its rising... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, August 23, 2016 While U.S. equities continue to waver, albeit in a slow northerly fashion, they're not the only asset groups trying to figure out which direction they want to ultimately go. Yesterday, I discussed the 10 year treasury yield ($TNX) struggling to... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, August 22, 2016 Monday was another boring day with most of the action slanting to the negative side, but it was nothing terrible. In fact, both the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 managed to finish the session with small gains while the Dow Jones and S&... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, August 19, 2016 Stocks ended last week on a negative note with each of our major indices finishing in negative territory. Losses were very minor on the more aggressive NASDAQ and Russell 2000, however, and three sectors - materials (XLB, +0.14%), technology (XLK, +0.06%) and... READ MORE
One company's failure can be another company's catalyst. Take for instance Merck & Co (MRK), who on Friday, August 5th surged to an all-time high after Bristol Myers (BMY) had a failed clinical trial of its lung cancer drug. BMY had clearly been outperforming MRK... READ MORE
The bottoming formation in crude oil ($WTIC) continues to take shape and the beneficiary clearly has been the energy ETF (XLE). Since dipping below $40 per barrel to begin August, the WTIC has rallied more than 20% in the past three weeks and is now nearing $50 per barrel. A... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, August 18, 2016 Energy (XLE, +2.06%) led the action on Thursday and helped turn the stock market around after it briefly turned negative at mid-day. Utilities (XLU, +1.23%) and materials (XLB, +0.64%) also performed well, but the remaining six sectors fluctuated near... READ MORE
There aren't too many stocks under the same scrutiny as Twitter (TWTR) and expectations range from wildly bullish to wildly bearish. So what is a trader to do? Well, I'd ignore all the news headlines, which lately have gone full circle from potential buyout rumors to... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, August 17, 2016 The Tuesday selling continued into early Wednesday, but initial support held in the support zone that was highlighted yesterday. 2170-2175 was the support zone and the S&P 500's intraday low was 2168 late Wednesday morning before the buyers... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, August 16, 2016 Eight of nine sectors fell on Tuesday with energy (XLE, +0.16%) the lone sector that managed to finish in positive territory. That was attributable to a continuing rise in crude oil prices ($WTIC) that has taken black gold from $39 per barrel... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, August 15, 2016 The Russell 2000 index surged nearly 1%, more than three times the percentage gain seen on the S&P 500 as small caps were once again held in favor by traders. The outperformance by small caps has been continuing since the S&... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, August 12, 2016 It was another day of indecision - but within the confines of a continuing uptrend. The NASDAQ and Russell 2000 eked out gains while both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 suffered fractional losses. Negative divergences are now present on the daily... READ MORE
YRC Worldwide (YRCW) recently posted quarterly results that blew away Wall Street consensus estimates with EPS reported at $.83. The estimate was for just $.51. That news was well received by traders as YRCW gapped up and opened at 10.98 on July 29th and never looked back. After becoming... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, August 11, 2016 Crude oil surged more than 6% yesterday and energy (XLE, +1.47%) led yet another S&P 500 rally with that benchmark index finishing at a record high. Initial price support at 2175 held before the bulls were back on the attack.... READ MORE
The Dow Jones U.S. Clothing Accessories Index ($DJUSCF) has been challenged technically with a long-term downtrend and a short-term uptrend currently in play. It'll be interesting to see which way this index breaks, but if the overall market holds any clue, then the DJUSCF will... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, August 10, 2016 U.S. stocks fell across all of our major indices on Wednesday (gasp!). Don't worry, it wasn't anything of technical significance. As I highlighted in the Current Outlook section below, the S&P 500 still remains poised for... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, August 9, 2016 It was another day of watching paint dry as the Dow Jones, S&P 500, NASDAQ and Russell 2000 gained 0.02%, 0.10%, 0.24% and 0.11%, respectively. The Dow Jones traded in a 70 point range and a final... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, August 8, 2016 It's summer time in the stock market, but you wouldn't know it by the action since June 27th. There's no doubt the rally has been strong, but most of the gains have occurred during the more bullish... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, August 8, 2016 Friday was a very solid day for the bulls and not just because the S&P 500 closed at all-time highs again. The part I liked the most was the leadership of the financial sector (XLF, +1.91%). The strength was... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, August 4, 2016 Technology (XLK, +0.54%) has been the leading sector over nearly every short-term performance measure. Industry groups like internet ($DJUSNS), software ($DJUSSW), semiconductors ($DJUSSC) and electronic equipment ($DJUSAI) have all broken out and are performing exceptionally well vs. the S&P... READ MORE
The Dow Jones U.S. Publishers Index ($DJUSPB) has broken a downtrend on its weekly chart and Dun & Bradstreet (DNB) is one of the best looking companies within this index. DNB posted revenues and EPS that bested Wall Street consensus estimates on Monday after the bell, then proceeded to... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, August 3, 2016 Strength returned in most areas of U.S. equities on Wednesday, but the gains were more pronounced in the Russell 2000, which rose 0.86%. Among the six sectors in positive territory, none was stronger than energy (XLE, +1.93%) where rebounding crude... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, August 2, 2016 There was no bifurcated action on Tuesday. There were no major indices threatening breakouts and eight of the nine sectors fell. Finally, the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 saw some much-needed profit taking after a long steady advance off their late-June lows.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, August 1, 2016 Monday marked another day of mixed action. The NASDAQ continues to power forward, leading the action. Since July 14th, the NASDAQ has advanced more than 150 points or roughly 3%. During that same time frame, the S&P 500 has barely budged,... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, July 29, 2016 Friday's end of month action was bifurcated with the Dow Jones lagging and posting a 0.13% decline. The other three major indices did manage to finish in positive territory with sectors finishing in that same bifurcated fashion. Energy (XLE, +1.... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, July 28, 2016 The action on Thursday was different than what we've seen recently as investor focus seemed to turn to safety ahead of the GDP report and after the FOMC announcement on Wednesday. Consumer staples (XLP, +0.44%) and utilities (XLU, +0.39%... READ MORE
Chart Industries (GTLS) was mired in a downtrend for two years, shedding 90% of its market value, but things have changed and the upward momentum is quickly building for this equipment maker for the energy sector. They blew top and bottom line estimates out of the water and shareholders are... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, July 27, 2016 Crude oil ($WTIC) continues to remain under pressure with its fifth consecutive drop on Wednesday. Crude oil has now fallen nearly 20% since topping at $51.53 per barrel on June 8th. From a technical perspective, it shouldn't really be all... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, July 26, 2016 Commercial vehicles & trucks ($DJUSHR) surged 3.34% on Tuesday, leading a rally in industrials (XLI, +0.83%) that once again sustained the advance in the benchmark S&P 500 despite weakness during the first couple hours of the trading session. The... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, July 25, 2016 It was a quiet session for most areas of the market. Consumer discretionary (XLY, +0.16%) was the only sector to finish in positive territory, but most of the other sectors lost fractional amounts and it did little to change their technical pictures... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, July 22, 2016 Utilities (XLU, +1.33%) surged on Friday to lead all nine sectors higher. All of our major indices also finished higher with most of the gains generated in the afternoon session as traders went home happy for the weekend. Many of the same... READ MORE
The summer months can be very difficult for U.S. equities, as history has proven over time. But there's always a bull market somewhere and the consumer electronics space seems to find a sweet spot in August. There are only two industry groups that average more than 5%... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, July 21, 2016 Aggressive sectors took a break on Thursday, as did the overall market. The S&P 500 saw its most intraday weakness since breaking out above 2131 to all-time highs more than a week ago. Technically, however, there was little damage done.... READ MORE
Actually, Encana (ECA) has broken two downtrends - a short-term trend and a long-term trend. ECA hit its all-time high of roughly 42.50 just before this bull market began. Shareholders of ECA haven't seen much bullish action since this seven year bull market began, but... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, July 20, 2016 Technology (XLK, +1.31%) had another huge day on Wednesday as consumer electronics ($DJUSCE) and software ($DJUSSW) paced the advance. It didn't hurt that biotechs ($DJUSBT) were up more than 1.50%, leading healthcare to outsized gains as well. But let&... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, July 19, 2016 The Dow Jones managed to close at another all-time high on Tuesday despite seven of nine sectors falling. Most of the weakness, however, was confined to materials (XLB, -0.59%) and energy (XLE, -0.56%). None of the other sectors fell more... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, July 18, 2016 The action on Monday was led by the NASDAQ's 0.52% gain with technology (XLK, +0.67%) pacing the advance. One bullish piece of technical news within the technology space was the breakout of internet stocks ($DJUSNS), which gained 2.0%... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, July 15, 2016 It was another day of bifurcation on Friday as the Dow Jones and Russell 2000 were able to eke out gains while both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ finished in negative territory. Similar bifurcation was found among sectors with materials (XLB,... READ MORE
Prior to the opening bell on Tuesday, Fastenal (FAST) confessed to below consensus revenues and EPS, normally a big problem for a stock. Sure enough, FAST fell approximately 4% on the open Tuesday, providing short sellers a quick profit. The problem, however, is that FAST is trading within a multi-... READ MORE
Note: I will be traveling this weekend and unable to post here in my Trading Places blog on Friday. I hope everyone has a great weekend! Back on Monday! Market Recap for Wednesday, July 13, 2016 The bullish run that began on June 28th continues despite Wednesday's pause.... READ MORE