Market Wrap February 23, 2012

Dow Industrials 12984.69 +46.02 +0.36% S&P 500 1363.46 +5.80 +0.43% Nasdaq Comp. 2956.98 +23.81 +0.81% Russell 2000 829.23 +12.73 +1.56%

NYSE Comp. 8136.15 +41.76 +0.52% Nasdaq 100 2594.93 +15.15 +0.59% Dow Transports 5161.65 +36.48 +0.71% Dow Utilities 450.75 -1.59 -0.35%

View Major Index charts

Internals were positive, with volume slightly higher. Advances/declines were about 7 to 3 on both exchanges, with up/down volume near 7 to 3 on each as well. New highs/lows were 145/1 on the NYSE and 99/23 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Biotechs (+2.17%), Telecoms (+2.10%), Broker Dealers (+2.07%), Homebuilders (+1.94%), REITs (+1.36%), Natural Gas (+1.30%), Retailers (+1.18%), Disk Drives (+1.15%)
Laggards — Airlines (-1.34%), HMOs (-0.86%), Utilities (-0.27%), Paper (-0.22%), Defense (-0.10%), Semis (+0.14%), Health Care Products (+0.30%), Chemicals (+0.35%)

An extensive visual representation of the day’s winners and losers can be found at Finviz.com.

Treasury Yields — 6-Month : 0.13 %,  2-Year : 0.30 %,  5-Year : 0.88 %,  10-Year : 1.99 %,  30-Year : 3.13 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $108.13/barrel,  Gasoline: $3.12/gallon,  Natural Gas: $2.61/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 78.636

Precious Metals — Gold: $1779.70/ounce,  Silver: $35.41/ounce,  Platinum: $1721.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
So far, the indices have decided to work off their overbought condition by moving sideways rather than pulling back. The trend remains up — go with it or not, but fighting it is probably not the right move yet.

How ’bout oil at $108 and gas at $3.12 in the futures market? Welcome to central-bank-sponsored-and-encouraged (and financed) inflation.

‘Bout Time February 22, 2012

Ok, she’s slow, but maybe she’ll get there. If the lobbyists don’t get to her first…

“Schapiro Questions Role of High-Frequency Traders”

A large portion of trading in the equities market has little to do with “the fundamentals of the company that’s being traded” and more to do with “the minuscule aberrational price move” that computer-assisted traders with direct connections to the exchange can “jump on” in fractions of a second, Ms. Schapiro said.

For those without WSJ (like me), go through Google.

Link from Barry Ritholtz on Twitter.

Market Wrap February 22, 2012

Dow Industrials 12938.67 -27.02 -0.21% S&P 500 1357.66 -4.55 -0.33% Nasdaq Comp. 2933.17 -15.40 -0.52% Russell 2000 816.51 -6.71 -0.82%

NYSE Comp. 8094.41 -21.01 -0.26% Nasdaq 100 2579.78 -10.46 -0.40% Dow Transports 5125.17 -38.01 -0.74% Dow Utilities 452.34 +0.06 +0.01%

View Major Index charts

Internals were negative, with volume a little lighter. Advances/declines were 2 to 3 on the NYSE and 1 to 2 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume 3 to 7 on the NYSE and 1 to 3 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 102/4 on the NYSE and 61/22 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Oil Services (+1.69%), Gold/Silver (+1.55%), Hospitals (+1.05%), Commodities (+0.27%), Software (+0.26%), Health Care Products (+0.14%), Utilities (+0.14%), Defense (-0.02%)
Laggards — Banks (-2.04%), Network (-1.92%), Comp. Hardware (-1.82%), Insurance (-1.63%), Airlines (-1.58%), Disk Drives (-1.51%), Homebuilders (-1.36%), HMOs (-0.93%)

An extensive visual representation of the day’s winners and losers can be found at Finviz.com.

Treasury Yields — 6-Month : 0.12 %,  2-Year : 0.29 %,  5-Year : 0.86 %,  10-Year : 2.00 %,  30-Year : 3.14 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $106.05/barrel,  Gasoline: $3.09/gallon,  Natural Gas: $2.66/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 79.243

Precious Metals — Gold: $1777.10/ounce,  Silver: $34.36/ounce,  Platinum: $1722.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
The market refuses to pull back to any significant degree. And there’s another ECB LTRO coming up next week. Hey, liquidity makes the world go round — and it makes all the prices go up. For everything.

Inflation is not an accident.

What A Gas February 21, 2012

S&P 500 and gas prices:

Despite all the appearance of wealth creation in the US equity markets, the S&P buys 10% fewer gallons of gas for your car than its average since the MAR09 lows (and 20% fewer than its pre-QE1 peak) with the last few weeks of action also removing almost 10% of purchasing power even as stocks soared…

Chart Chatter February 21, 2012

While the Dow 30 index has made another straight-line move to new multi-year highs…

 

 

the Transports have been sliding back to the 50-day:

 

 

Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com

Market Wrap February 21, 2012

Dow Industrials 12965.69 +15.82 +0.12% S&P 500 1362.21 +0.98 +0.07% Nasdaq Comp. 2948.57 -3.21 -0.11% Russell 2000 823.20 -5.48 -0.66%

NYSE Comp. 8115.37 +0.86 +0.01% Nasdaq 100 2590.24 +6.00 +0.23% Dow Transports 5163.18 -76.34 -1.46% Dow Utilities 452.28 -0.32 -0.07%

View Major Index charts

Internals were mixed, with volume around Friday’s levels. Advances/declines were flat on the NYSE but 7 to 12 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume just better than flat on the NYSE but 2 to 3 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 163/2 on the NYSE and 101/15 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Gold/Silver (+2.79%), Metals (+1.74%), Commodities (+1.08%), Comp. Tech (+0.64%), Comp. Hardware (+0.39%), Oil Services (+0.31%), Oil (+0.29%), Broker Dealers (+0.22%)
Laggards — Airlines (-5.49%), Biotechs (-2.31%), Transport (-1.58%), Retailers (-1.48%), Semis (-1.40%), Homebuilders (-1.34%), REITs (-1.30%), Health Care Products (-1.23%)

An extensive visual representation of the day’s winners and losers can be found at Finviz.com.

Treasury Yields — 6-Month : 0.12 %,  2-Year : 0.30 %,  5-Year : 0.90 %,  10-Year : 2.05 %,  30-Year : 3.20 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $105.88/barrel,  Gasoline: $3.07/gallon,  Natural Gas: $2.63/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 79.060

Precious Metals — Gold: $1759.70/ounce,  Silver: $34.37/ounce,  Platinum: $1685.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
But wait, I thought the Greece thing was fixed now. And that’s all stocks could do? You know what they say — when stocks stop going up on ‘good’ news… But still the indices keep inching out to new multi-year highs on another ‘liquidity’ run — similar to the one from spring of last year.

For all the Dow theorists out there, there is an interesting divergence shaping up between the Industrials and the Transports — we’ll look at those charts in a bit…

ChartWatchers Newsletter February 20, 2012

It’s that time again — something to browse through on your holiday, if you’re lucky enough to have the day off, that is.

What’s Hot, What’s Not February 19, 2012

• With the exception of maybe the metals and utilities, most group charts remain in uptrends.
• Check out our subset of group charts here: set #1 — set #2 — set #3 — set #4.
• For a more detailed breakdown of group movement over various time periods, try the Industry Group Tracker at WSJ Online, the industry group tools at Finviz.com, or the list of Morningstar industry groups at FreeStockCharts.com.

 

Best Performing Industries
Last Week	Last 4 Weeks	Last 8 Weeks
HMOs ($HMO) +5.5%	Disk Drives ($DDX) +15.6%	Biotech ($BTK) +26.3%
Networking ($NWX) +4.4%	Airlines ($XAL) +15.0%	Disk Drives +24.4%
Natural Gas ($XNG) +4.4%	Comp. Hardware ($HWI) +14.5%	Comp. Hardware +23.3%
Disk Drives +4.2%	Natural Gas +10.4%	Networking +22.7%
Paper ($DJUSPP) +4.2%	Networking +10.1%	Airlines +20.8%

 

 

Worst Performing Industries
Last Week	Last 4 Weeks	Last 8 Weeks
Steel ($DJUSST) -2.8%	Steel -2.2%	Utilities ($UTY) -3.0%
Gold & Silver ($XAU) -1.0%	Metals & Mining (XME) 0.0%	Drugs ($DRG) +0.4%
Metals & Mining -0.4%	Utilities +0.4%	Gold & Silver +4.2%
Biotech -0.2%	Drugs +0.7%	Metals & Mining +4.7%
Utilities +0.3%	Defense ($DFX) +2.2%	Steel +4.8%

Market Wrap February 18, 2012

Another positive week for the sector SPDRs as the straight line move up out of Christmas continues. How far can it go without a pullback?

 

 

The numbers as the market ponders its next move:

 

Sector	Symbol	8 Week % Chg.	4 Week % Chg.	1 Week % Chg.	YTD % Chg.
Financials	XLF	+12.5	+4.6	+1.6	+13.8
Technology	XLK	+11.6	+6.4	+1.7	+12.1
Basic Materials	XLB	+10.2	+2.2	+0.9	+11.6
Consumer Discretionary	XLY	+9.6	+4.4	+1.5	+10.1
Industrials	XLI	+9.4	+3.1	+0.8	+10.5
Energy	XLE	+7.6	+4.9	+2.5	+8.3
Health Care	XLV	+4.1	+1.1	+1.2	+4.5
Consumer Staples	XLP	+1.5	+2.0	+1.4	+1.8
Utilities	XLU	-2.1	+1.3	+0.7	-2.6

 

Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com

Market Wrap February 17, 2012

Dow Industrials 12949.87 +45.79 +0.35% S&P 500 1361.23 +3.19 +0.23% Nasdaq Comp. 2951.78 -8.07 -0.27% Russell 2000 828.68 -1.28 -0.15%

NYSE Comp. 8114.51 +22.32 +0.28% Nasdaq 100 2584.24 -8.05 -0.31% Dow Transports 5239.52 -23.58 -0.45% Dow Utilities 452.60 -0.04 -0.01%

View Major Index charts

Internals were mixed, with volume a little lighter. Advances/declines were 11 to 8 on the NYSE and just better than flat on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume 5 to 4 on the NYSE but 4 to 5 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 179/0 on the NYSE and 128/11 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Oil Services (+1.32%), Natural Gas (+1.09%), Telecoms (+1.08%), Banks (+0.97%), Chemicals (+0.81%), Defense (+0.68%), Retailers (+0.51%), Broker Dealers (+0.47%)
Laggards — Biotechs (-2.48%), Gold/Silver (-1.49%), Metals (-1.06%), Software (-0.95%), Semis (-0.88%), Hospitals (-0.86%), Disk Drives (-0.70%), Comp. Hardware (-0.66%)

An extensive visual representation of the day’s winners and losers can be found at Finviz.com.

Treasury Yields — 6-Month : 0.11 %,  2-Year : 0.29 %,  5-Year : 0.86 %,  10-Year : 2.00 %,  30-Year : 3.14 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $103.52/barrel,  Gasoline: $3.03/gallon,  Natural Gas: $2.69/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 79.353

Precious Metals — Gold: $1721.50/ounce,  Silver: $33.21/ounce,  Platinum: $1628.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
A pretty dull expiration day, since traders put the machines on auto-pilot and left after the first hour to start their long weekend.

One interesting note: the drop in three-month T-Bill yields over the past few days, in direct contrast to the 5-6-week rise since early January (also discussed in this post at ZH).

Have a restful long weekend.