Market Recap for Thursday, December 31, 2015 Happy New Year! The action on Thursday to close out the year symbolized trading throughout all of 2015. We were down early, rallied to try to move into positive territory and then fell again in the second half of the session to finish... READ MORE
Honeywell (HON) is part of the diversified industrials ($DJUSID) that saw excellent relative strength in the fourth quarter of 2015. General Electric (GE) reported excellent quarterly results in October and moved to its highest level in 15 years last week. HON appears to be on a path to do the... READ MORE
2015 was a very difficult year. We witnessed our first serious selling since 2011. It's unusual to trade in a bull market for four years with little interruption, yet that's exactly what we did. Despite not breaking down, the trading environment was quite challenging in 2015.... READ MORE
NOTE: I will be out tomorrow so I won't provide my next article until Monday, January 4th. HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'm wishing everyone health and happiness in 2016.....and of course great trading results! Do me a favor. At the bottom of this article, click on... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, December 28, 2015 On Monday, energy (XLE) did what it's done best in 2015 - it led the nine sectors to the downside by falling 1.82%, much more than the S&P 500's .22% decline. Materials (XLB), another 2015 laggard, fell... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, December 24, 2015 Thursday was a shortened trading session before the Christmas holiday and there was little movement in our major indices and on little volume. Eight of nine sectors moved lower on Thursday, although energy (XLE) was the only space to see much selling. Oil... READ MORE
The Dow Jones U.S. Toys Index ($DJUSTY) is ending the year just about the same way it began - on a very bullish note. Recently, the DJUSTY completed a bullish ascending triangle pattern in August and September before breaking out in October. Since that time, the DJUSTY has printed another... READ MORE
Market Recap for December 23, 2015 All nine sectors finished higher on Wednesday, led by energy (XLE) which gained a very impressive 4.35%. Materials (XLB) also showed outsized gains of 2.36%. Aggressive sectors like technology (XLK) and consumer discretionary (XLY) rose but underperformed. This rally has been marked... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, December 22, 2015 Tuesday's action was bullish on a few fronts. First, it was a trend day where we saw buying throughout. The last time that happened was December 4th, nearly three weeks ago. Second, the rally was led by industrials (XLI) which gained... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, December 21, 2015 Nothing in this market can seem to make up its mind. The Volatility Index ($VIX) is straddling a key 20 level, not allowing sentiment to move favorably in either the bulls or bears favor. The German DAX is straddling key short-term support/... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, December 18, 2015 Friday's action was marked by short-term price breakdowns in a few of our major indices, sectors and industry groups. It also was accompanied by extremely heavy "quad-witching" volume. Quad-witching refers to the 3rd Friday of March,... READ MORE
Last month, Ctrip.com (CTRP) posted both revenues and EPS well above Wall Street consensus estimates and it came on the heels of an earlier announcement where CTRP was involved in a share swap that resulted in Baidu (BIDU) owning a 25% ownership interest in the Chinese online travel company.... READ MORE
I'm not ready to write off this bull market as the most important indication of all - the combination of price/volume - remains bullish in my view. But the signals "under the surface" are beginning to erode. One of two things will likely happen. Either we'... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, December 17, 2015 Traders seemed overjoyed to finally put the uncertainty of higher interest rates behind them on Wednesday....only to find new worries on Thursday. After attempting to rally the past few days, crude oil ($WTIC) fell again on Thursday to close near 36.00... READ MORE
Apple (AAPL) is breaking down beneath its November low and on the surface appears to be a broken stock, but its intraday 60 minute chart is telling a much different story. Given the slowing volume this afternoon and near test of Wednesday's pre-Fed low, AAPL's... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, December 16, 2015 First, the good news. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates in the U.S. for the first time in nine years, signaling their belief that economic strength lies ahead with an improving labor market. The quarter point hike really will do little to... READ MORE
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... 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 ($VIX) spiked 26% on Friday to close at 24.39. Historically, the 20 level on the VIX has... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, December 10, 2015 We finished higher across all of our major indices, which is a positive. The negative, however, is that we saw much higher prices earlier in the day only to watch them deteriorate in the afternoon. I never like afternoon selling, especially when history... READ MORE
The U.S. Dollar index ($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... 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 stocks (XLE)... 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 higher... 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 $40... 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... 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:... 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... 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