Month: November 2013

Weekend Sector Scan

Again the indices edged out to new highs, but only a few of the sector SPDRs were playing along:

 


 

The numbers as we start the cruise into Christmas:

 

Sector Symbol 8 Wk % Chg 4 Wk % Chg 1 Wk % Chg YTD % Chg
Industrials XLI +9.0% +3.0% +0.1% +32.9%
Consumer Staples XLP +7.9% +1.1% -0.5% +23.2%
Health Care XLV +7.8% +4.0% 0.0% +38.5%
Technology XLK +7.8% +3.2% +1.6% +20.3%
Consumer Discretionary XLY +7.6% +3.1% +1.1% +38.2%
Financials XLF +7.2% +4.3% 0.0% +31.1%
Basic Materials XLB +4.2% +1.5% -1.0% +18.1%
Energy XLE +3.2% +0.4% -2.1% +21.0%
Utilities XLU +2.4% -2.6% -1.6% +8.9%

 

Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com

Market Wrap

Dow Industrials 16086.41 -10.92 -0.07%
S&P 500 1805.81 -1.42 -0.08%
Nasdaq Comp. 4059.89 +15.14 +0.37%
Russell 2000 1142.88 +1.55 +0.14%
NYSE Comp. 10183.12 +0.14 +0.00%
Nasdaq 100 3487.82 +17.34 +0.50%
Dow Transports 7235.69 -19.31 -0.27%
Dow Utilities 487.13 -0.03 -0.01%

View Major Index charts

Internals were positive, volume was light — big shock, I know. Advances/declines were 5 to 4 on the NYSE and 3 to 2 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume 10 to 9 on the NYSE and 3 to 2 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 217/16 on the NYSE and 329/12 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Gold/Silver (+2.03%), Disk Drives (+0.88%), Metals (+0.64%), Comp. Tech (+0.58%), Network (+0.49%), Drugs (+0.39%), Comp. Hardware (+0.28%), Insurance (+0.23%)
Laggards — REITs (-1.05%), Airlines (-1.04%), Defense (-0.34%), Homebuilders (-0.34%), Paper (-0.27%), Oil (-0.16%), Chemicals (-0.11%), Commodities (-0.07%)

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

Treasury Yields — 6 Month: 0.08 %,  2 Year: 0.26 %,  5 Year: 1.35 %,  10 Year: 2.75 %,  30 Year: 3.82 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $93.80/barrel,  Gasoline: $2.69/gallon,  Natural Gas: $3.92/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 80.587

Precious Metals — Gold: $1251.30/ounce,  Silver: $20.01/ounce,  Platinum: $1365.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
I have no clue what happened this morning. Paid no attention whatsoever.

Market Wrap

Dow Industrials 16097.33 +24.53 +0.15%
S&P 500 1807.23 +4.48 +0.25%
Nasdaq Comp. 4044.75 +27.00 +0.67%
Russell 2000 1141.33 +6.80 +0.60%
NYSE Comp. 10183.03 +15.13 +0.15%
Nasdaq 100 3470.48 +24.72 +0.72%
Dow Transports 7255.00 +41.89 +0.58%
Dow Utilities 487.16 -2.06 -0.42%

View Major Index charts

Internals were positive on lighter volume. Advances/declines were 12 to 7 on the NYSE and 7 to 3 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume 5 to 3 on the NYSE and 8 to 3 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 194/35 on the NYSE and 310/22 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Comp. Hardware (+2.05%), Airlines (+1.38%), Comp. Tech (+1.21%), REITs (+1.04%), Defense (+0.95%), Biotechs (+0.85%), Transport (+0.81%), Network (+0.80%)
Laggards — Natural Gas (-0.90%), Oil Services (-0.87%), Oil (-0.63%), Utilities (-0.39%), Commodities (-0.38%), Paper (-0.24%), Drugs (-0.18%), Homebuilders (+0.05%)

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

Treasury Yields — 6 Month: 0.09 %,  2 Year: 0.26 %,  5 Year: 1.33 %,  10 Year: 2.74 %,  30 Year: 3.81 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $92.27/barrel,  Gasoline: $2.70/gallon,  Natural Gas: $3.90/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 80.734

Precious Metals — Gold: $1238.20/ounce,  Silver: $19.72/ounce,  Platinum: $1351.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
Have a great Thanksgiving — half-day of trading on Friday.

Market Wrap

Dow Industrials 16072.80 +0.26 +0.00%
S&P 500 1802.75 +0.27 +0.01%
Nasdaq Comp. 4017.75 +23.18 +0.58%
Russell 2000 1134.53 +9.81 +0.87%
NYSE Comp. 10167.89 -8.31 -0.08%
Nasdaq 100 3445.76 +18.27 +0.53%
Dow Transports 7213.11 -4.75 -0.07%
Dow Utilities 489.22 -4.66 -0.94%

View Major Index charts

Internals were positive, with volume a bit better. Advances/declines were 9 to 7 on the NYSE and 12 to 7 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume just better than flat on the NYSE and 4 to 3 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 190/67 on the NYSE and 247/33 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Homebuilders (+2.17%), Semis (+0.86%), Defense (+0.77%), Network (+0.61%), Comp. Tech (+0.53%), Retailers (+0.50%), Oil Services (+0.44%), Transport (+0.43%)
Laggards — Gold/Silver (-2.17%), Utilities (-0.97%), Metals (-0.85%), Airlines (-0.45%), Natural Gas (-0.43%), Drugs (-0.40%), Commodities (-0.32%), Oil (-0.31%)

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

Treasury Yields — 6 Month: 0.09 %,  2 Year: 0.27 %,  5 Year: 1.31 %,  10 Year: 2.71 %,  30 Year: 3.80 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $93.83/barrel,  Gasoline: $2.69/gallon,  Natural Gas: $3.84/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 80.635

Precious Metals — Gold: $1242.40/ounce,  Silver: $19.85/ounce,  Platinum: $1373.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
Holiday week — you just never know what you’re going to get.

Market Wrap

Dow Industrials 16072.54 +7.77 +0.05%
S&P 500 1802.48 -2.28 -0.13%
Nasdaq Comp. 3994.57 +2.92 +0.07%
Russell 2000 1124.73 -0.19 -0.02%
NYSE Comp. 10176.23 -29.49 -0.29%
Nasdaq 100 3427.49 +5.47 +0.16%
Dow Transports 7217.86 +18.49 +0.26%
Dow Utilities 493.88 -1.43 -0.29%

View Major Index charts

Internals were mixed, with volume around Friday’s levels. Advances/declines were 4 to 5 on the NYSE but 10 to 9 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume 4 to 5 on both exchanges. New highs/lows were 241/61 on the NYSE and 281/35 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Airlines (+1.81%), Transport (+0.90%), Broker Dealers (+0.44%), Insurance (+0.43%), Banks (+0.37%), Comp. Hardware (+0.22%), Biotechs (+0.18%), Retailers (+0.18%)
Laggards — Oil Services (-2.13%), Network (-1.13%), Disk Drives (-0.93%), Oil (-0.82%), Chemicals (-0.81%), Software (-0.66%), Commodities (-0.62%), REITs (-0.53%)

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

Treasury Yields — 6 Month: 0.09 %,  2 Year: 0.28 %,  5 Year: 1.34 %,  10 Year: 2.73 %,  30 Year: 3.82 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $94.18/barrel,  Gasoline: $2.69/gallon,  Natural Gas: $3.80/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 80.881

Precious Metals — Gold: $1249.00/ounce,  Silver: $20.03/ounce,  Platinum: $1377.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
Holiday week…

Looking Back

John Hussman:

In hindsight, the crisis ended – precisely – on March 16, 2009, when the Financial Accounting Standards Board abandoned FAS 157 “mark-to-market” accounting, in response to Congressional pressure from the House Committee on Financial Services on March 12, 2009. That change immediately removed the threat of widespread insolvency by making insolvency opaque. My impression is that much of the market’s confidence and oversensitivity to quantitative easing stems from misattribution of the initial recovery to QE. This has created a nearly self-fulfilling superstition that links the level of stock prices directly to the size of the Fed’s balance sheet, despite the absence of any reliable or historically demonstrable transmission mechanism that relates the two with any precision at all.

The FOMC certainly had a part in creating a low-interest rate environment that provoked a reach-for-yield and a gush of demand for securities backed by mortgage lending of increasingly poor credit quality (I’ll note in passing that new issuance of “covenant lite” debt has now eclipsed the pre-crisis peak largely due to the same yield-seeking). Still, it may ease the burden of power to consider the likelihood that the actions of the Federal Reserve – though clearly supportive of the mortgage market – were not responsible for the recovery. One can thank the FASB for that, provided we’re all comfortable with the reduced transparency that results from mark-to-model and mark-to-unicorn accounting.

What’s Hot, What’s Not

 

Best Performing Industries
Last Week Last 4 Weeks Last 8 Weeks
Brokers ($XBD) +3.3% Brokers +7.6% Airlines ($XAL) +12.8%
Paper ($DJUSPP) +3.0% Networking ($NWX) +5.2% Steel ($DJUSST) +10.8%
Biotech ($BTK) +2.8% Banks ($BKX) +4.5% Brokers +10.7%
Banks +2.3% Defense ($DFX) +4.3% Comp. Hardware ($HWI) +9.1%
Insurance ($INSR) +2.2% Retail (XRT) +4.0% Banks +8.6%

 

 

Worst Performing Industries
Last Week Last 4 Weeks Last 8 Weeks
Gold & Silver ($XAU) -6.7% Gold & Silver -13.4% Gold & Silver -7.9%
Metals & Mining (XME) -3.3% REITs ($DJR) -7.1% Disk Drives ($DDX) -6.9%
Oil Services ($OSX) -2.4% Disk Drives -2.3% REITs -1.4%
Steel -2.2% Housing ($HGX) -2.0% Networking +0.5%
Utilities ($UTY) -2.1% Utilities -1.9% Transportation ($TRANQ) +1.9%

 

Weekend Sector Scan

While the indices moved to new highs, only four of the sector SPDRs were higher on the week:

 


 

The numbers heading into the holiday:

 

Sector Symbol 8 Wk % Chg 4 Wk % Chg 1 Wk % Chg YTD % Chg
Health Care XLV +8.9% +4.7% +1.7% +38.5%
Industrials XLI +7.8% +3.2% +0.6% +32.8%
Consumer Staples XLP +7.4% +2.6% -0.3% +23.7%
Financials XLF +7.2% +3.1% +1.7% +31.2%
Consumer Discretionary XLY +6.5% +2.5% -0.2% +36.7%
Basic Materials XLB +6.2% +1.3% -0.3% +19.3%
Technology XLK +6.0% +2.0% -0.4% +18.4%
Energy XLE +5.7% +1.9% +0.7% +23.5%
Utilities XLU +3.4% -1.4% -1.8% +10.7%

 

Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com

Market Wrap

Dow Industrials 16064.77 +54.78 +0.34%
S&P 500 1804.76 +8.91 +0.50%
Nasdaq Comp. 3991.65 +22.50 +0.57%
Russell 2000 1124.92 +5.30 +0.47%
NYSE Comp. 10205.70 +43.29 +0.43%
Nasdaq 100 3422.02 +19.29 +0.57%
Dow Transports 7199.37 +26.01 +0.36%
Dow Utilities 495.31 -0.56 -0.11%

View Major Index charts

Internals were positive, with volume a bit lighter. Advances/declines were 5 to 3 on both exchanges, with up/down volume 7 to 4 on the NYSE and 3 to 2 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 225/55 on the NYSE and 241/23 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Airlines (+1.74%), Biotechs (+1.66%), Chemicals (+0.82%), Oil (+0.81%), Banks (+0.74%), Defense (+0.74%), Insurance (+0.72%), Network (+0.67%)
Laggards — Gold/Silver (-0.86%), Homebuilders (-0.71%), Telecoms (-0.57%), Comp. Tech (-0.43%), REITs (-0.42%), Retailers (-0.30%), Metals (-0.28%), Utilities (-0.15%)

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

Treasury Yields — 6 Month: 0.08 %,  2 Year: 0.27 %,  5 Year: 1.35 %,  10 Year: 2.75 %,  30 Year: 3.84 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $94.84/barrel,  Gasoline: $2.73/gallon,  Natural Gas: $3.77/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 80.711

Precious Metals — Gold: $1242.50/ounce,  Silver: $19.85/ounce,  Platinum: $1382.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
Indices sitting at all-time highs heading into T-giving holiday week — bet that doesn’t happen too often…