Stocks Reverse Intraday Losses, With Most Indexes Closing Higher On A Slight Uptick In Volume; Housing Market Continues To Swoon
March 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks started the day pretty drift-less the first half hour, but soon the excitement started. After a report on new-homes sales falling 3.9% to 848k in February to new seven year lows (June 2000), a report on the months supply of homes on the market rising to 8.1 months which is a 16 yr high (January 1991), and a revision of new-home sales being lowered in November, December, and January, stocks were slammed. On top of that, Citigroup announced plans to cut 15k jobs and take a $1 billion charge to earnings, and oil rose to over $63 a barrel, closing at $63.30. Despite all of this, after the selling was over in the morning, stocks rose the rest of the day closing near their highs. This was a very positive bullish intraday reversal. Read more
A Boring Day Of Trading Ends With Stocks Mixed On Lower Volume; Best Week For Stocks In Six Months
March 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment
A boring, erratic, and overall lame session came to end Friday, after a week of surprises on many fronts. The only thing not boring today was the post-1pm EST action in the Nasdaq; up, wedge up, down, wedge down, and up. Still, that only led to a flat close. Today’s headlines were much more subdued than the previous four days, but we still had some important numbers to digest. Existing-home sales were up 3.9% in February to an annualized 6.69 million. That was the fastest growth since April and above economist estimates. This was a welcome report, after all the thrashing we received last month. The other news item making its way around was the 15 British sailors and marines that were captured by Iranian kidnappers. However, as expected, this was not market moving news. Read more
Stocks Rally For Second Straight Day, On Lower To Flat Volume; Funds Still Have No Interest In This Market
March 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It was another day of light gains, for the stock market. However, today, had a bit more of a steady bullish bias to it, unlike yesterday, as big-cap indexes closed near their HOD. The good news for stocks came on the back of a better-than-expected housing starts number for February. That number was up 9% for the month, which is much better than the 14% drop in January. The bad news, in that mix, came from building permits as they fell again by 2.5%. The other positives effecting stocks was M & A activity. The news that CYTC is making a full bid for ADZA and that PALM might receive a bid for its business might have had a positive impact on stocks. Read more
A Choppy Day With A Downside Bias Ends With Stocks Slightly Lower; Quadruple Witching = Quadruple Boring
March 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It was a weird sluggish session, today, but in the end it was another typical quadruple-witching Friday. However, there was plenty of data for Wall Street to go through, despite this once a month event. The CPI rose a little over .4%, a bit higher than the .3% estimate. But the core prices came in line rising .2% for a year over year change of 2.7%. Industrial production jumped 1% in February, over the readings for a .3% increase and its largest increase since November. Michigan consumer confidence fell (are you surprised there?) to 88.8. Add the fact that oil fell below $58 and might have thought it would have been a more exciting day. Nope. Quadruple-witching ruled the day. Read more
Markets Fail Attempted Rally, Falling Across The Board And Closing At Or Near Their LOD; Are Any Of My Readers Surprised? No
March 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It was another very ugly day for the stock market as the continuation of non-stop bad news keeps coming out. Today, before the opening bell, it was retail sales coming in at a less than .1% gain, when economist were expecting a .3% gain. That got the day started on the wrong foot but by noon time there was more pain to be delivered. The news that foreclosures rose to a .54% total of all mortgages outstanding, mortgage delinquencies rose to 4.95% of all loans, and that subprime delinquencies rose to 14.4% of all loans sent stock swooning into the close. These poor loan numbers were the worst since mid-2003. Read more
Stocks Close Slightly Higher, Ending A Week Of Low Volume Gains; Beautiful Charts Still Do Not Exist
March 10, 2007 | 2 Comments
Stocks gapped higher off a mixed jobs report. Total jobs for the month came in at the lowest level in two years but the unemployment data dipped to 4.5% from 4.6% and last months numbers were revised up continuing a recent pattern, possibly giving market players a bit of buying power. The gap higher then led to an immediate selloff, followed by a weak rally, that led to even more lows. However, at the end stocks actually caught a late bid, helping them close off the lows. A pattern that did not exist the rest of the week. The prevailing pattern, before Friday’s close was to rally until the final hour then either selloff or flatline. This is bearish action and combining that with the low volume rally puts and end to a dead-cat bounce week. Read more
Stocks Finish Higher Across The Board But Suffer A Late-Day Selloff; Lower Volume Shows Institutions Are Not Interested
March 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment
My girlfriends parents arrived on Maui, today, so I spent all day with the family. Therefore, I was not around at all after the closing bell.
However, I have reviewed my charts and can honestly say that nothing has changed. The gap up this morning and steady drift all day gave way to a selloff sometime after 2pm EST. That was a pretty nasty selloff and that has now happened for the third day in a row. Combine that with the lower volume and you have another technical negative. This bounce should see some volume if it is going to have any staying power. Read more
Wild And Choppy Intraday Action Ends With Most Indexes Red; Day Two Of Rally Attempt
March 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It was a choppy day today (no surprise here) as stocks opened flat, then fell, the rallied, and then took a last hour nosedive. When it was over, all indexes ended in the red closing near the LOD, except the MidCap 400 index. There was not much in economic news to move the market. The Fed Beige Book showed modest growth in the economy, with 3 out of 12 districts slowing down. This lack of econ news kept the market in a benign trading range that led to a last hour selloff that killed a possible green close. Read more
Stocks End The Week With More Losses, Capping Off Their Worst Week In Years
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
Stocks Stage An Impressive Reversal Off The Morning Lows; Stock Indexes Close Red, Across The Board
March 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks started off the day with a nasty replay of the action on Tuesday. However, stocks found support shortly after and managed to rally to a respectable close, helping rescue trapped longs. Early weakness caused by a selloff in Asian and European markets (China down 2.8%) and inflation worries quickly sent stocks for a loop. The core personal consumption price expenditure index rose .3%, giving it a year over year increase of 2.3%. That is ahead of the Fed’s target 1-2%. But shortly after that nasty gap down, the ISM manufacturing index came in with a 52.3 reading, above the neutral 50 level. This and a heavy round of short-covering sent the indexes higher and even sent them into the green. But in the final hour, sellers reasserted control, ending the hopeful wishes of a green close by the bulls. Read more
