Market Recap for Tuesday, December 15, 2015 Energy and financials were the leaders in Tuesday's rally as all nine sectors gained ground, supporting the market's two day rally. Given the significance of today's Fed decision which will likely produce the first interest rate hike... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, December 14, 2015 Eight of the nine sectors finished higher on Monday as the U.S. stock market made a case for a near-term bottom. We know the middle of December tends to turn in favor of the bulls and there were plenty of kick saves... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, December 11, 2015 Friday was a very rough day for U.S. equities on a number of fronts, but the most obvious was the approximate 2% loss that each of our major indices sustained. In my Friday blog article, "Futures Tank, Bears Have A Big... READ MORE
Conditions changed on Friday and the short-term market prospects grew significantly riskier. Why? Because in addition to price support breakdowns across many key indices, sectors and industry groups, the volatility index ($VIX) spiked 26% on Friday to close at 24.39. Historically, the 20 level on the VIX has carried... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, December 10, 2015 We finished higher across all of our major indices, which is a positive. The negative, however, is that we saw much higher prices earlier in the day only to watch them deteriorate in the afternoon. I never like afternoon selling, especially when history... READ MORE
The U.S. Dollar index ($USD) saw a parabolic rise from mid-2014 through March 2015 and has been consolidating since in a classic cup with handle pattern. The pattern doesn't confirm until we see a breakout, but there's a Federal Reserve meeting next week that could... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, December 10, 2015 The action on Wednesday was crazy. The Dow Jones was higher by 200 points in the first hour of trading. At that same time, the NASDAQ was up less than 10 points, a complete reversal of what we saw on Tuesday when the... READ MORE
Market Recap for December 8, 2015 I indicated on Tuesday morning that the bulls' resiliency would be tested as our major indices were poised to open significantly lower. They proved they're a resilient bunch once again, frustrating those on the bearish side of the aisle. It feels... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, December 7, 2015 As baseball great Yogi Berra would famously say, "It's deja vu all over again". The S&P 500 keeps trying - and failing - to break out and one big reason is the lack of participation from energy... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, December 4, 2015 Major indices here in the U.S. rebounded Friday in a big, big way after Thursday's drubbing. During uptrends, I always look to rising 20 day EMAs for support. On Thursday, all of our major indices lost 20 day EMA support,... READ MORE
The start of every bear market is different. Sometimes it's driven by technology stocks, other times it's a financial crisis. Whatever the case, one common denominator seems to be that aggressive areas of the stock market are abandoned as final tops are made or challenged. In... READ MORE
CA Inc (CA) topped in March 2015 and was in the midst of an 8 month downtrend - until last week's action. Prior to the break of this downtrend and key 20 week EMA resistance, CA had printed a fresh weekly CLOSING low that was accompanied by a... READ MORE
Market Recap for December 3, 2015 The European Central Bank (ECB) announced additional measures to stimulate economic growth, but it clearly was not enough for traders who've grown accustomed to quantitative easing (QE) in all shapes and sizes. That, combined with a very disappointing ISM manufacturing report a... READ MORE
Negative divergences on the MACD and light volume on breakouts are two important criteria in identifying a possible top. Accumulation requires volume so I'm always suspicious if advances begin to run out of it. In the case of Adobe Systems (ADBE), it has these markers in place just... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, December 2, 2015 Wednesday was a very difficult day for energy stocks (XLE) as this sector fell more than 3%, its worst day since the heavy August selling. The culprit is what you would expect - falling crude oil prices ($WTIC). The WTIC finished just above... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, December 1, 2015 Equity markets enjoyed a very strong Tuesday, although it wasn't all good news. Money flowed into treasuries on a relative basis and this represents defensive action. It also occurred at a fairly critical short-term support area (20 day EMA) on the... READ MORE
Market Recap for November 30, 2015 All of our major indices finished lower on Monday's session, but there was plenty of sector rotation. Despite the overall losses, four of the nine sectors managed to finish higher, led by energy (XLE), materials (XLB) and utilities (XLU). Technology (XLK) also... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, November 27, 2015 Action was solid on Friday, although a bit bifurcated. The Dow Jones was the only major index to finish in negative territory as this index of behemoth blue chip companies tries to negotiate short-term resistance from 17800-18000. Check out the visual: The Dow... READ MORE
The first thing to investing or trading smarter is understanding your own personal strategy - what works best for you. Are you a short-term trader? Do you swing trade? Do you prefer longer-term holding periods? Without understanding that basic personal trait, deciding whether to buy or sell becomes a very... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, November 25 Healthcare (XLV) and consumer discretionary (XLY) were the two best performing sectors on Wednesday, leading the U.S. stock market to gains in most of our major indices. The S&P 500 saw a late selloff take that index to a loss of... READ MORE
Imperva Inc (IMPV) made a steady move higher from April through July before consolidating in a very bullish ascending triangle continuation pattern over the past four months. On Tuesday, volume accelerated and triangle resistance near 74.00 was cleared as IMPV extends its prior uptrend. The measurement of this pattern... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, November 24, 2015 Apparently, the U.S. stock market's shock absorbers are working just fine. After being dealt multiple blows in the early pre-market action - (1) weak European indices, (2) a list of poor quarterly results from the retail space and (3) a... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, November 23, 2015 The Russell 2000 was clearly the big winner on Monday as this small cap index rose .44% on a day when the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all had fractional losses. The NASDAQ 100 ($NDX) fell .25% to perhaps paint... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, November 20, 2015 Consumer discretionary stocks (XLY) led six sectors higher on Friday. The only three that did not participate were energy (XLE), materials (XLB) and consumer staples (XLP). Crude oil ($WTIC) reversed on Friday and finished near its low of the session, just above $41... READ MORE
After gapping up off its recent uptrend, the buying continued on Intel (INTC) intraday on Friday as it surged to a high of 35.29. By day's end, however, INTC closed at 34.66 - EXACTLY where it closed on its recent high on October 23rd. Volume was... READ MORE
On the surface, the rout that took place in August has been completely reversed and, three months later, it's like nothing ever happened, right? Wrong. What has happened is that the S&P 500 rose from August 19th's close of 2079.61 to Thursday, November... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, November 19, 2015 The U.S. stock market was bifurcated on Thursday with the NASDAQ 100 able to eke out small gains while the others were fractionally lower. Utilities were easily the sector performance leader, but it's been a rough few weeks for the... READ MORE
The Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction index ($DJUSHB) hit its highest level in two months this morning and a close above 600 would likely signal more strength to come. DR Horton (DHI) and NVR, Inc (NVR) represent two of the strongest stocks in the group technically and are both... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, November 18, 2015 There was strength everywhere on Wednesday. All nine sectors were higher and utilities represented the only sector that was not higher by at least 1%. Healthcare (XLV) rallied 1.95% while materials (XLB) and financials (XLY) both rose by an identical 1.78%... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, November 17, 2015 The U.S. dollar index ($USD) neared 100 for the first time since the second week of April and that sent shock waves throughout commodities once again. Gold, in particular, was hit very hard as GLD broke to fresh lows beneath four month... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, November 16, 2015 All nine sectors moved higher on Monday and the wide participation was evident in the 1%+ gains across the board. Leadership in energy (XLE) was clear with that sector's 3.33% advance off key support near 66.00. This level was... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, November 13, 2015 Retailers were slammed on Friday after October retail sales came up short of expectations. Retail sales for the month gained 0.1% while expectations were for a much stronger 0.3% rise. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.2%, one half of the... READ MORE
Retailers were rocked on Friday with the five worst performing industry groups all in the retail space. The S&P Retail index (XRT) dropped nearly 4% on Friday and more than 8% last week. Many of the retail industry groups and stocks within those groups are at or challenging... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, November 12, 2015 Over the past 5-6 trading sessions, the selling was fairly contained and appeared to be nothing more than normal profit taking after a lengthy advance from the depths of the late September lows. That changed yesterday. I'm not writing off the... READ MORE
Prior to this week, energy had seen its strongest rebound since topping in June 2014. But a long-term negative divergence and slowing volume suggested the rally was long in the tooth. After hitting nearly 72.00, the XLE has retreated and the energy bulls will now be tested. During an... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, November 11, 2015 Wednesday wasn't a horrible day, but the back and forth action ended with a "back" as our major indices finished on or near their lows for the session. Mid-day it was much more promising than that as early losses... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, November 10, 2015 Technology and materials shares held back the market on Tuesday. These sectors were down .66% and .73%, respectively. Industrials were flat, while the remaining six sectors finished higher on the session. CreditSuisse lowered its earnings estimates for Apple (AAPL) and Seabreeze Partners Management... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, November 9, 2015 Monday represented the worst one day performance for U.S. stocks since the late September low printed. 8 of 9 sectors were lower, led by consumer discretionary (XLY) and financials (XLF). The only sector spared was the defensive utilities (XLU) group, which simply... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, November 6, 2015 We didn't make any major breakouts on Friday, but after initial weakness we did see the aggressive indices - NASDAQ and Russell 2000 - close nicely. In addition, the exceptionally strong October jobs report sent financial stocks soaring, especially banks ($DJUSBK)... READ MORE
Semiconductors have been one of the hottest areas of the market off the August low and especially during the month of October. That's created a number of trading opportunities in the space. I would consider Microsemi Corp to be one of those opportunities now based on its cup... READ MORE