Today’s Market Update

FOR TRADING August 17th

Retail Revival with WalMart

The market started on the upside and never looked back. The aforementioned WMT was clearly the star of the day opening at $100 +9.88 (10.8%). Along with the new “trade talks” the market went unencumbered to finish +396.32 (1.58%), NASDAQ +32.40 (.42%), S&P 500 +22.32 (.79%), The Russell +15.09 (.90%), and the DJ Transports +75.41 (.68%). Market internals were stilted in the direction of the DJIA with the top 6 gainers were BA +96, WMT +57, CAT +29, GS +25, AAPL +21 and UNH +17 for a 6 stock total of 245 Dow points. The index’s internals were 9:1 up with only 3 losers. So, the NYSE outperformed NASDAQ with volume of 2.5:1 and A/D 3:1 vs. 5:4 and 2.6:1 respectively.

SECTORS:

Other names in the news, yesterday’s ugliness was lain at the feet of M, and today’s monster rally was based on Retail. WMT beat and as mentioned above spent the day hovering around $100 closing the day $98.64 +8.42 (9.33%). It bears mentioning here that a company with a $300Billion market cap is not easily moved by 9% in either direction. Volume today was 43MM. Other retail names reporting today were JCP with a widening loss and several downgrades finished $1.76-.65 (27%), JWN with a beat and after trading $60 +8 is now 57.61 +5.31 (10.15%), DDS beat expectations but was still a loss and traded 69.88 at the low, down from 94 3 days ago but the last is 76.20 -7.18 (8,65%). Away from retail, tech stocks were also soft with NVDA beating top and bottom lines but gave poor guidance and is trading $244.50 -12.94 (5.4%), AMAT also beat but gave poor guidance and is trading $45.40 -2.03 (4.3%).

BIO/PHARMA, today they were HIGHER with CELG +.95, BIIB +2.21, REGN +10.65 (2.94%), ISRG +1.13, ABBV +1.30, MYL +.08, TEVA +1.77 (its generic Epipen coming to market and approved by the FDA today), PRGO +.96, GILD +.81, VRTX +1.96, BHC +.81, INCY +.98, ICPT +1.01, INNT +.32 (6.35%) and IBB +.89 (.77%).

RETAIL was MOSTLY HIGHER as mentioned above with M +.71, JWN +4.89, KSS +1.81, DDS -6.98 (8.4%), SHLD (clearly terminal) -.35 (8.5%), JCP -.62 (26%), WMT +8.35, HD +1.02, TJX +1.01, TGT +1.41, DKS +.20 and the brands, RL +.69, UAA +.33, LULU +3.02 (2.4%), NKE +.25, KORS +.18, and XRT +.17(.34%).

FAANG, surprisingly the group was MIXED today with the exception of AAPL +2.76 (to another new high +1.31%) GOOGL -9.22, AMZN +4.38 but almost $20 off its high, FB -4.93, NVDA -13.76 (5.4%), TSLA -3.31, NFLX -4.77, IBM +1.11, BOX +.35 (we bought the 9/27 calls @ $1.15 today and they closed $1.05) and XLK +.32 (.44%).

FINANCIALS, were HIGHER with GS +3.75, JPM +.97, BAC +.36, AIG +.36, C +.95, PNC +2.45, WFC +.47, and XLF +.37 (1.33%).

OIL, $65.46 +.45 Oil was rocked by supply and drawdown numbers yesterday but after hitting a slight new low but closed near the high of the day. Clearly, this makes me wrong about not closing under $66. The next area of support comes in between $63-64, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a rally on the slightest geopolitical tension. The stocks were MIXED to HIGHER with XLE +.58 (.81%).

METALS, $1,184 – 1.00 the gold failed to hold the round number of $1,200. This was partially due to the technical but also the fact that like Oil, it is an international commodity priced in the rising US$. Last night the pajama traders took it as low as $1,167 -18 before it came back early this morning. Copper collapsed yesterday closing $2.56 -.1220, but bounced back to close $2.6165 + .0565. It has broken all support going back to May 2017 at $2.50 to about $2.30. We’ll need better economic numbers to get it started back to the upside.

BITCOIN closed $6,405 +30. After trading down to below test support at 6,800 we collapsed again hitting $6,110 before a minor rally to trade 6,615. Tuesday’s low of $5855 is just $100 above contract lows of $5,755 could easily be breached and the overhead supply is still from 6,900 to 7,300. Today was an “inside day”. According to the CNBC talking head who is the Bitcoin “expert,” today’s action is contract expiration related and there should be a rally for the next days.

Tomorrow is another day.

CAM

Submitted August 16, 2018 at 09:06PM by Dashover https://ift.tt/2MT3ykW