May 17, 2008 | 1 Comment
There is really only one word to describe Friday’s intraday action: bullish. Right off the bat, thanks to a report showing the University of Michigan consumer confidence number fell below 60 to a 28-year low, the Nasdaq fell 1.2% within the first two hours. This selling was pretty nasty but still the report should not have shocked the informed investors who saw the IBD/TIPP poll hit an all-time low last month. I am sure we can expect more of the same come Tuesday when the new data is released. Thankfully, for the bulls, cooler heads prevailed and quickly the consumer confidence news was taken as old news and shaken off.
By the end of the day, it was an impressive turnaround on all the indexes, as everything closed near their HOD. The leading index was the NYSE which scored a .5% gain. The SP 500 also was up today, gaining .1%. On the other end, the Nassy lost .2% and the DJIA lost .1% but both still closed near their HOD. Considering the losses that all the indexes had going after the first two hours there is no other way to call today anything but a victory for the bulls.
May 15, 2008 | 2 Comments
Well, that sure is not how you like to close them. Especially with volume picking up there while we sold off right after hitting the 200 day moving average on the Nasdaq. The good news is that the market still gapped high enough in the morning that all major market indexes were able to close with gains. But there was a negative blip in regards to leading stocks as the IBD 100 fell 1.2%.
Thankfully, even though volume ticked slightly higher on the Nasdaq, the NYSE had volume come in 1% lower on the reversal. To go along with that the volume was below average on the NYSE for the 38th straight session, volume was barely above the 50 DMA on the Nasdaq. With the volume being higher and prices being higher that would still be bullish despite the reversal. The volume simply was not full of conviction in the form of huge clear distribution. I guess you could count 4/1 as average daily volume on the NYSE, by the way, but still it wasn’t above average so I guess the point still stands.
Overall, the market is in the same situation as it was last week. We are rallying on lower volume with this clearly being a stock picker’s market. The good news, for me is that is what I specialize at.
May 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
There is no other way to spin today’s action other than it was downright ugly. However, after going over my personal holdings and seeing how few stocks needed to be sold and how few actually fell on higher volume, it became clear to me that I am going to have to see more selling to confirm that this short uptrend is dead. The way my leading stocks acted today and seeing how some of the stocks that I purchased large positions in actually made gains today, it just seems smart that it would be wise to not panic here and lose our positions in our leading stocks. This kind of selling is not good but it is normal to see this during uptrends. You can review any uptrend you want and you will see they all have one, two, or three distro days along the way.
Today’s distribution day did come with most indexes losing 1.8% which was a nice chunk lower but the NYSE’s volume was below the 50 day volume average for the 33rd consecutive day. The Nasdaq’s volume was higher than the day before and above the 50 DVA but the volume on the index was still lower than 4/24 and 5/1’s rally on higher volume. The selling was heavy but nothing that smells of SERIOUS distribution. I will need to see further confirmation before I sell stocks that are still holding support. Especially when the majority show either intraday tails or low volume on the selling.
May 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment
According to a new CNN poll 79% of Americans when asked ” Is the US in a recession” said yes! Main Street has given into the media constant hype about high oil prices and how BAD the US economy is. Most on Main Street form opinions not on their own situation but what they think others are. Concern for your neighbor is ok, but does it actually reflect the current environment. In these types of situations, Main Street is wrong and does not reflect the actual reality but more so perceived reality.
As Crude Oil hits another all time high, Main Street will be reminded HOW BAD the economy is and how bad the Bush adminstration is. In reality, we have not seen back to back negative GDP growth and we have even seen negative GDP growth AT ALL. Even today, we are seeing selling only on the NASDAQ with higher volume. With that said, it will only be the second day of distribution the index has seen in recent weeks. It takes 5 to 6 days worth of distribution to knock down a market.
Again, no panicing allowed! Turn off the mainstreet media, go enjoy life!
May 6, 2008 | 2 Comments
It was another overall lower volume session as the NYSE, for the 32nd day in-a-row, came in with volume below the 50 day volume average once again. However, underneath the bullish mini-reversal that sent the Nasdaq from a .8% loss to a .8% gain, there was a TON of bullish action in stocks in a wide range of industries.
When the day started off, it sure did not seem like the good times were going to continue as more bad news rolled in from so many areas that it seemed the market was due for a rest. June oil climbed $1.87 to close at $121.84 and hit an HOD of $122.73. This definitely sent some fear in the market, on top of the UBS negative banking report, the FNM and FRE announcement, and then going back to oil GS predicting it to hit $200. However, proving that markets climb a wall of worry, indexes were able to shake all of this nonsense off and most indexes closed near their HOD with every index but the DJIA up .8% (the DJIA was up .4%).
The best news was not the higher volume than the day before, either. No, the best news, once again, was the dramatic and dynamic leadership of the IBD leading indexes. The IBD 85-85 came in with a heavier volume 1.3% gain. Leading stocks continue a pattern that started about a month ago with them making moving lower on the down days and now rising higher on the up days. This pattern has really started to develop recently and appears to be continuing that path for a little while long, at least.
May 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was another overall boring session to end the week but despite the overall boring tone to Friday’s session it was still a bullish session underneath as many stocks had solid sessions and many stocks that I was long had a very positive session. Overall, profit taking was quite mild in the AM and the strong mid-day rally into the close shows the bears are still not in control.
This kind of action on a do nothing day is just what I like to see in a market that refuses to do much. If there would have been a lot of blowups and negative action today, then I would have been a lot less enthusiastic about the non-event that Friday was.
By the close, the NYSE was up .6%, the SP 500 was up .3%, and the DJIA was flat. The Nasdaq finished lower but the intraday support and positive action by the close is something that has to be considered positive overall. I mean obviously if this market was real weak they would have sold them into the close.
May 2, 2008 | 1 Comment
COMMENTARY WILL BE SHORT AS MY SURF SESSION WAS EXTREMELY LONG AND TIRING.
I was impressed by today’s stock market session, especially when it came to leading stocks, tech stocks, and even more specifically semiconductor stocks. It was amazing to get a rally in such high-tech group of stocks. What made today’s rally even better was that volume increased on the Nasdaq and was above the 50 day volume average for the fifth time in the past few weeks. This was the fourth time it was a big up day with volume above average. And even though the NYSE has only had twenty-nine straight days without volume being above average, it is at least in an uptrend and that with low volume is OK with more, for now.
A lot of people are worried about the market being right at resistance and being oversold since our lows. You know what, that is fair, I will agree with that. We do need to be aware that we are running into resistance, we are overbought, and the volume has been close to pathetic during the rally so it is possible we could run into some heavy volume selling.
April 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
-The IBD 100 is up 228.5% compared to SP 500’s 49.5% since 4/18/08
-IBD 85-85 and IBD 100 were down for the week (-.9% compared to Nassy .8%) but they were up over 2.5% on Friday compared to Nassy down .2%.
-This appears to be rotation of some sorts out of commodities into some new sectors
-Internet-Network Solutions up 9% this week
-Computer Software-Design up 5% this week
-These industries however are being led by the usual laggards BIDU and AAPL.
-Strongest Semi stocks: PMCS MCRL VLTR FSLR CRUS JASO SMTX POWI IVAC JST LSCC SMTC AXYS
-Impressive food stocks: FDP SDA — I am long both
-Nasdaq has an A for acc/dis NYSE B SP 500 B+ IBD 85-85 C+
April 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
What a weird session! Finally, something interesting to talk about. And by interesting I mean that all the chemical-fertilizer stocks that I have been listing as “parabolic charts” in my forums the past week have finally sold off on very heavy volume. I am not sure if this is the ultimate top but we are very blessed to have an excellent futures trader amongst are midst and he has been screaming to short the commodities the pat few days. Now, while those selloff, finally, the stocks start to catch up. I hope this is the top to the commodities, but something tells me this will probably be just another short term adjustment.
Either way, it really doesn’t matter to me. I have taken my 400% and 500% gain from TNH and MOS back in 2006-2007 a long time ago and I am just waiting for these things to top so that I may try to take a piece of the pie back when they head back to earth where all stocks belong after a climax run.
April 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was another typical day that we have seen recently where not a lot gets accomplished and we pretty much just give back whatever happened the day before in the opposite direction. Still, I do believe, that today’s gains coming with higher volume is a positive overall. And if you look at your Nasdaq daily chart, you will see that pattern show up a lot the past month (lower volume selling, higher volume rally). That is the reason the Nasdaq carries an ACC/DIS rating of A- which makes it the most heavily accumulated index out there.
Today, however, that was minor compared to the SOX’s 4% powerful rally that saw shares of BRCM leap today on huge volume. I am starting to believe that what I COULD be seeing is a rotation from commodity stocks (which don’t appear to be done yet at all) into technology stocks. That can best be viewed by taking a look at your daily SOX chart for 2008. As you can see we have a ton of excellent price action to go along with all that support right in the 340 to 350 zone. The move in the SOX today gets it ever closer to being able to take back and claim its 200 DMA. Tech stocks led in 9900 and big-cap tech did well in 2003 also. However, since then it has been all commodities but if the parabolic runs I am seeing in POT MOS AGU FEED etc…I will continue to monitor those stocks for a blowoff top and watch Semi/Tech stocks for more breakouts or possible bottoms.
I HATE calling bottoms while a stock market is falling and I hate saying a stock has bottomed until after the fact it looks bottomed. When I look at the stocks in the Semi index, I can honestly say, that I am starting to get that “feel-good” feeling in my body where I think that we are just moments away from launching a big rally. However, anything can happen in this market and I promise you that INDEED ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. EVEN THOUGH IT LOOKS LIKE this market is going to resolve itself to the upside via some tech stocks trying to regain a strong uptrend. But once again, though I feel good and it appears eventually the SOX can take off and run, anything can happen and that is why I am prepared for anything and everything. Up, down, sideways, or a halt. I have my game plan ready to go!!