March 5, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stock market indexes took traders on a wild and crazy wild, on Monday, as stocks gapped lower due to fears out of Asia, the subprime mortgage market, and other various reasons. By the middle of the day stocks managed to make it to the green but were then slammed in the final hour on heavy selling sending the averages right back to where they started. Read more
March 4, 2007 | 2 Comments
A falling dollar to a rising yen and euro and concerns of the subprime mortgage market helped weigh on stocks on Friday. However, after the damage Tuesday and the weak bounce on Wednesday and Thursday, further selling was to be expected. The most disturbing part of Friday’s selloff was the fact that almost all the indexes closed at their LOD. Read more
March 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks gapped higher in the morning but soon lost those gains, off the back of three weak economic numbers. First Q4 GDP came in with a final revision of a 2.2% gain. That was much lower than the initial 3.5% reported and below 2.3% estimates. Then new home sales came in with a Y over Y fall of 16.6%. That was the worst fall in 13 years. Finally, the Chicago PMI fell to 47.9, below the neutral 50 mark, signaling that the factory sector is slowing down. However, Ben came to the rescue, with comments that the economy was “fine” and that the economy is showing “moderate growth.” This helped lift stocks off the lows, leading them to green closes. The tame gains, compared to Tuesday’s losses, however, shows that yesterday’s losses were more than just a one day “mistake.” This had to be disappointing to market bulls, even though they will not tell you it was.
At the close, stocks barely recovered any of their losses, with the SP 500 leading the way with a .6% gain, the DJIA followed with a .4% gain, the Nasdaq gained .3%, and the SP 400 and 600 gained .1%. This was not the kind of buying that inspires confidence that the selling from yesterday was a one day phenomenon. The IBD 100 gained 1.3% and the IBD 85-85 gained 1.2%. Both well below their 5.3% losses yesterday. Today was not bullish.
February 24, 2007 | 2 Comments
Stocks finally decided to take a break, across the board, as stocks meandered in the red all day, closing off the lows. However, a slight change of character was the fact that there was no last hour rally. That is probably due to most traders starting the weekend early as an exhaustive holiday shortened week comes to an end. There was no doubt that with no economic news of significance today that digesting this week’s gains was a good thing. Read more
February 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It was another wild session, with an intraday bullish bias, after a weak opening. Thanks to bad news out of Iran (did you expect anything else?) and crude oil rising 1.5% on news that inventories were smaller than expected, big caps suffered. However, some positive action in Semiconductor stocks and news that WFMI is buying OATS helped save the Nasdaq. A mixed day to a wild yet uneventful session best sums it up. Read more
February 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stock indexes gapped lower this morning as CPI data came in higher than expected. The CPI rose .2% as core prices had their biggest jump since June. That along with Fed minutes showing that the Fed is still targeting inflation was enough to send all the indexes lower. However, showing just how strong this market is, stocks crawled off their lows of the day and the Nasdaq even closed at its HOD. Read more
February 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks fought off morning weakness, caused by a revenue warning from MSFT, and rallied the rest of the day to close flat and near the highs of the day. This bit of news from MSFT particularly hit the Nassy the hardest as MSFT represents 6% of this index. The strength in the indexes in the face of the selling in MSFT shares can only be seen as impressive. Many traders expected much worse, considering that the news came on top of a report showing Housing starts falling 14%. Read more
February 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
There was plenty of economic data for the market to feast upon, on Thursday. However, neither that or continued testimony by Ben was able to really move stocks one way or the other. Though industrial output fell by the largest amount in 17 months, stocks didn’t mind and were able to close higher across the board, for the third straight day. Read more
February 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Today stocks showed, ONCE AGAIN, why shorting a market that is in a long-term uptrend is an unprofitable and low reward/high risk proposition. All it took today was positive comments from Mr. Bernanke about the economy to ignite a very powerful rally that helped five key indexes hit all-time highs and another one hit six and a half year highs. In front of the Senate Banking Committee, Mr. Bernanke stated, “…the view that the current stance of policy is likely to foster sustainable economic growth and a gradual ebbing of core inflation.” Those words right there ignited the rally that we saw today. Read more
February 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It is kind of odd that a comments from the St. Louis Fed head William Poole, Cleveland Fed head Sandra Pianalto, and Dallas Fed head Richard Fisher could kick start a selloff like it did today, but that is in fact what happened. Stocks started off strong but his comments that he would vote for a hike if inflation stays above 2% was not what wall street was looking for. The momentum of the market took a turn on Wednesday and those comments, along with MU announcing price declines, sent stocks falling across the board with leading stocks in leading sectors getting hit hard.
At the close, the Nassy led to the downside with a 1.16% loss, the SP 600 lost 1.03%, the SP 500 took a .71% hit, and the DJIA fell .45%. The bad news, without a doubt, came from leading stocks. The IBD 100 index got hit with a 1.8% loss. Not good.
Volume was higher on the NYSE and significantly higher on the Nasdaq. This volume and price action gives both indexes a clear distribution day. Thus making it three distribution days in the past four weeks. Caution flags are rising.