Mister Finance
Financial insights, commentary, and advice.

  • Bargain hunting in oversold areas (see SLV, XOP, FXI) along with increasing confidence following this morning’s report on retail sales kept the bulls in charge.

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    For the week, the S&P 500 gained +1.5%, the Dow increased +1.3%, and the Nasdaq climbed +2.8%. Outperforming sectors this week were in casinos & gaming, computer hardware, airlines, storage devices, advertising, brokers, investment services, publishing, apparel retailers, restaurants, defense, coal, tobacco, and REITs. Underperforming sectors were in water utilities, oil & gas, auto & truck manufacturers, natural gas utilities, insurance, mobile services, trucking and life insurance.

    As for stocks, this top upside movers over the past 5 days were ANTP, CBLI, CCOI, COSI, EDA, FTGX, GHDX, GOAM, HA, IDP, IESC, INCY, INPH, JADE, MGM, PRFT, PRXI, PTT, SGEN, SPRT, SPWR, STKL, SVNT, SYNT, and TELK. Top losers were AZL, BRLC, CELL, CHU, DVAX, EMAG, EPG, FSTR, GRRF, HOS, IAAC, LYTS, MEDE, MLS, MPX, MXWL, OMNI, PDFS, PWEI, RZ, SIL, UPG, and VNT.

    I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the weekend and my plan to get as much rest as possible ahead of the next few weeks. Have a great weekend!

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  • So much for keeping expectations low ahead of earnings. It was all systems go from the start and the bulls managed quite a show.

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    With just over one-third of January’s trading days behind us, the Dow and S&P 500 are up +0.4% and the Nasdaq is leading the way with a +2.9% gain. If that doesn’t tell you where the money is now flowing, I don’t know what will. In sum, the significant drop in oil prices, below average earnings warnings, and expectations for better than expected earnings are bringing back the buyers.

    On my end, it was a frustrating day primarily due to my blatant failure to fully capture at least some of these gains. Nevertheless, I hope this finds you well and the year off to a great start. See you in the A.M.

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  • Lower oil prices, M&A activity, strength in tech, and ultimately expectations for positive earnings trumped concerns that interest rate cuts are not right around the corner.

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    The market keeps finding a way to claw itself back into positive territory. You have to like and respect that, but certainly not let your guard down just because of it.

    I made a few trades today in order to finally kickoff the new trading year. Fortunately I was able to snag a couple of decent set-ups but there’s lots of work ahead. I’m sure you know the feeling. Rest up and we’ll hit’em hard again tomorrow.

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  • Another mixed day for the market. We had some continued sector rotations, but overall there was little conviction on either side of the fence.

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    Falling oil prices and Apple garnered everyone’s attention. Hopefully Alcoa’s report this evening will kick off another gangbuster earnings season. The jury is still out on that one, but as we’ve seen, the bulls aren’t waving their white flags just yet. For a stock like AAPL to go up that much in one day along with the concentration of biotechs on the daily winners list, you know the bulls’ juices are still flowing. Have a great evening!

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  • People love make predictions in January and the only one the market cared about today was made by Donald Kohn who said the U.S. economy is in for a good year. In reaction, the tape managed to work off some earlier weakness, but the gains were small and came on lower trading volume.

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    Earnings season gets underway tomorrow and hopefully we’ll have some decent datapoints to key off other than just Fedspeak. At least one can hope! See you tomorrow morning.

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  • Those looking for reasons to sell in the new year continue to find things to concentrate on. Today’s jobs report, earnings warnings, and diminished expectations for an interest rate cut were enough to keep the sellers in control.

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    For the week, the S&P 500 declined -0.6%, the Dow fell -0.5%, and the Nasdaq gained +0.8%. For both the S&P 500 and Dow, it was the biggest drop since November 27th. Most of us were trying to find our footing this week. After a long weekend, the holidays and the stream of fresh data this week, we certainly had to stay on our toes.

    For your weekend research, you may want to take a gander at some of the top winners which were AGIX, ANGO, BRLC, CHNR, CPSL, CYNO, DATA, EAGL, HNSN, ICE, ICOP, MAMA, NEXC, NICH, NWK, RZ, VDSI, and WITS. As for the losers, see ALY, BEXP, BRNC, BTJ, DUK, GROW, HLF, HNAB, HOTT, IOC, JRCC, NRMX, NURO, OHB, OLED, ORGN, and STZ.

    Have a great weekend!

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  • The market managed a positive close thanks mostly to strength within the tech space.

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    Everyone is talking about the beat down in the commodities and there are good reasons why. That said, the jury is still out to whether we can trust this move as a major market tell or just garden-variety “take your profits” and run in the new year. We’ll find out soon enough if any stability returns once this new trading year gets fully underway.

    See you after the jobs report tomorrow morning.

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  • Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be heading back to my favorite place on Earth to spend the holidays.

    Mele

    I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - see you on January 2nd!

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  • Finally, a decent day for the bulls. Volume was up and market breadth fairly positive.

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    There’s chatter tonight of a large buy program which came in at the open which enabled today’s upside foray but I’m sure performance anxiety enabled those gains to stick. No doubt, new market highs on the indexes put the market in an interesting position ahead of tomorrow’s CPI and options expiration. See you in the morning.

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  • Finally, a decent day for the bulls. Volume was up and market breadth fairly positive.

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    There’s chatter tonight of a large buy program which came in at the open which enabled today’s upside foray but I’m sure performance anxiety enabled those gains to stick. No doubt, new highs on the major market indexes put the market in an interesting position ahead of tomorrow’s CPI and options expiration. See you in the morning.

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  • The bulls failed to take advantage of this morning’s good will. Some will blame oil prices, but I wouldn’t put too much weight behind it.

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    As an astute observer of the obvious, there’s just not a lot of momentum beyond the buyout of the day. If you ask me, it’s very tough to make very profitable trades in that kind of setup. Of course, that’s just my perspective. I’m sure there are some of you making a killing out there this week.

    If not, I still hope you’re holding up well and not letting the stress of the holiday season get the best of you. If you’re like me, the calendar is booked solid over the next two weeks. Ugh!

    Have a good evening.

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