Market Insights
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Breakout or Breakdown? Stock Movement Grinds to a Halt as Investors Wait and See
Stocks have stopped moving as investors wait for more news on corporate earnings and interest rates. The S&P 500 slid 0.1 percent between Friday, April 14, and Friday, April 21. If that percentage change sounds small, consider that the index fluctuated less than...
Inflation Fades, Earnings Beat and Stocks Push Higher
Stocks keep pushing higher as inflation fades and earnings beat expectations. The S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent between Friday, April 7, and Friday, April 14. It was the fourth gain in the last five weeks. Several data points suggested further slowing of inflation, the...
Technical Analysis: Merck Could Be Breaking Out
Merck surged in late 2022 and consolidated during the first quarter. Now the drug maker could be breaking out. The first pattern on today’s chart is the rally between mid-October and early January, which included a breakout to new record highs. MRK then pulled back...
Technology Rallied in March as Interest Rates Eased and Outlooks Improved
Technology stocks are rallying again as interest rates fall and fundamentals improve. The S&P 500 rose 3.5 percent in March, while the Nasdaq-100 surged 9.5 percent. That 6 point lead by the Nasdaq was its widest margin of outperformance since early 2009,...
S&P 500 Challenges Falling Trendline: Market Trends This Week
Downloads available here and here. Anchored VWAP and Keltner pullback here. Also: multidata crossover strategy. Register for Market Trends here. Next session is Thursday, May 4. Sizing Up the S&P 500 S&P 500 holds rising trendline, tries to...
Chart of the Day: Apple Pulls Back After a ‘Golden Cross’
Apple clawed to a six-month high last week. Is it done or will prices continue higher? The first pattern on today’s chart is the price level around $156. AAPL peaked there on March 6 and bounced there yesterday. Some chart watchers could think ... For more,...
Will American Express Run Again? A Big Options Trader May Think So
American Express has dropped along with other financials this month, but one big investor is using options to stay long the name. Check out this large trade that occurred shortly before noon yesterday: A block of 34,843 April 125 calls was sold for $37.88.An equal...
Stocks Hold a Potentially Key Level as Fed Takes a Less Hawkish Stance
Stocks could be trying to stabilize as investors look for the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates. The S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent between Friday, March 17, and Friday, March 23, its second straight positive week. The index has moved sideways for the past...
Fed Suggests a Pause as AI Sweeps the Nasdaq: Market Trends This Week
Downloads available here and here. Anchored VWAP and Keltner pullback here. Register for Market Trends here. Sizing Up the S&P 500 S&P 500 sitting between 200-day and 50-day MAsMACD inching higherWeak U.S. dollar, lower yields are...
Breakout or Breakdown? Stock Movement Grinds to a Halt as Investors Wait and See
Stocks have stopped moving as investors wait for more news on corporate earnings and interest rates. The S&P 500 slid 0.1 percent between Friday, April 14, and Friday, April 21. If that percentage change sounds small, consider that the index fluctuated less than...
Inflation Fades, Earnings Beat and Stocks Push Higher
Stocks keep pushing higher as inflation fades and earnings beat expectations. The S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent between Friday, April 7, and Friday, April 14. It was the fourth gain in the last five weeks. Several data points suggested further slowing of inflation, the...
Technical Analysis: Merck Could Be Breaking Out
Merck surged in late 2022 and consolidated during the first quarter. Now the drug maker could be breaking out. The first pattern on today’s chart is the rally between mid-October and early January, which included a breakout to new record highs. MRK then pulled back...
Technology Rallied in March as Interest Rates Eased and Outlooks Improved
Technology stocks are rallying again as interest rates fall and fundamentals improve. The S&P 500 rose 3.5 percent in March, while the Nasdaq-100 surged 9.5 percent. That 6 point lead by the Nasdaq was its widest margin of outperformance since early 2009,...
S&P 500 Challenges Falling Trendline: Market Trends This Week
Downloads available here and here. Anchored VWAP and Keltner pullback here. Also: multidata crossover strategy. Register for Market Trends here. Next session is Thursday, May 4. Sizing Up the S&P 500 S&P 500 holds rising trendline, tries to...
Chart of the Day: Apple Pulls Back After a ‘Golden Cross’
Apple clawed to a six-month high last week. Is it done or will prices continue higher? The first pattern on today’s chart is the price level around $156. AAPL peaked there on March 6 and bounced there yesterday. Some chart watchers could think ... For more,...
Will American Express Run Again? A Big Options Trader May Think So
American Express has dropped along with other financials this month, but one big investor is using options to stay long the name. Check out this large trade that occurred shortly before noon yesterday: A block of 34,843 April 125 calls was sold for $37.88.An equal...
Stocks Hold a Potentially Key Level as Fed Takes a Less Hawkish Stance
Stocks could be trying to stabilize as investors look for the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates. The S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent between Friday, March 17, and Friday, March 23, its second straight positive week. The index has moved sideways for the past...
Fed Suggests a Pause as AI Sweeps the Nasdaq: Market Trends This Week
Downloads available here and here. Anchored VWAP and Keltner pullback here. Register for Market Trends here. Sizing Up the S&P 500 S&P 500 sitting between 200-day and 50-day MAsMACD inching higherWeak U.S. dollar, lower yields are...
Stocks Hold Key Support as the Bulls Face a Wall of Worry
Stocks just held key support as strong economic data overshadowed persistent bearishness. The S&P 500 just had its first positive week in the last four. Ninety-three percent of the index’s members advanced, along with every major sector.
Technical Analysis: ON Semi’s Breakout and Pullback
ON Semiconductor is one of the few chip stocks to hit new highs this summer. It then pulled back along with the rest of the market, and is now bouncing. The first pattern on today's chart is the falling trendline along the peaks of January, March and June. ON broke...
Art of TradeStation: Candlesticks and Advanced Alerting
Candlesticks like hammers, dojis and outside bars can help stock traders anticipate changes in direction. TradeStation’s award-winning platform has tools for detecting a wide range of candlesticks and other patterns. Alerts can also be linked to popular studies like...
Lithium and Battery Stocks Climb as Investors Focus on Clean Energy
Battery stocks have climbed recently as investors focus on green energy. Today we'll examine some companies focused on this new corner of the market. This article will cover two established companies shifting to lithium production: Albemarle (ALB) and Sociedad Quimica...
Stocks Keep Diving With the Fed Still Pushing Interest Rate Hikes
Stocks keep diving as the Federal Reserve menaces investors with aggressive interest-rate hikes. The S&P 500 fell 3.3 percent between Friday, August 26, and Friday, September 2. It was the third straight negative week, with over 90 percent of the index's members...
Stocks Fall as The Fed Battles Inflation: August in Review
Stocks fell in August as investors focused on the likelihood of more interest rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve. There was also profit taking after July's big rally. Attention in September will probably continue to focus on inflation with the next central bank...
Chart of the Day: Is This Chip Stock Rolling Over?
Advanced Micro Devices has bounced sharply from its early-July lows, but some patterns could be pointing lower for the chip stock. The first pattern on today’s chart is the descending parallel channel that’s been in effect most of the year. AMD’s latest highs...
Stocks Tumble as Fed’s Powell Promises to Crush Inflation
Stocks fell again last week as the Federal Reserve emphasized its plans to crush inflation with higher interest rates. "Reducing inflation is likely to require a sustained period of below-trend growth," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell warned investors on Friday morning. He...
Stocks Pause as Investors Brace for the Fed to Stay Hawkish
Stocks are pausing as investors brace for potentially hawkish news from the Federal Reserve this week. The S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent between Friday, August 12, and Friday, August 19. It was the first drop in the last five weeks as the index stalled at a resistance...
Big Hedge Detected in High Flying Sector
Regional banks are one of the strongest groups this year, and now a big investor seems to be hedging a large position. Check out the options activity in the SPDR S&P Regional Bank ETF (KRE) yesterday: A block of 39,265 April 51 puts was bought for $1.16. An equal...
Options Recap: Can a Megabank Keep Running?
Bank of America (BAC) had a monster rally this week, and options traders are looking for the lender to keep running higher. Here's a breakdown of a big transaction detected late yesterday morning in BAC: A block of 23,000 March 26 calls was sold for $2.80 and an equal...
Big Trade Sees Bottom in Energy Giant: Options Recap
Energy stocks are bouncing from long-term lows this year, and one big investor has called a bottom in a key servicing name. Schlumberger (SLB) touched a 13-year low under $35 last month. Today, a large block of puts got sold at that level as a trader looked for the...
Bulls See More Bounce in Energy Space: Options Recap
Energy stocks have gone from bad to good in the New Year, and one options trader is looking for the bounce to continue. Check out the activity yesterday in Oklahoma City-based driller Devon Energy (DVN): A block of 20,000 April 28 calls was bought for $1.48 in a new...
Hedging With Puts Amid Market Volatility
Stocks just finished their most tumultuous period in years. If there was ever a time for hedging with options, this was it! After all, volatility can be a big pain for investors. You do your research to identify promising companies or exchange-traded funds (ETFs)....
Bearishness Reigns in Energy Giant: Options Recap
Energy's the weakest sector over the long run, and options traders are sticking with that trend. Check out this giant bearish trade in oil-field servicing company Halliburton (HAL): A block of 58,000 22-February 27.50 puts was bought for $1.45. A block of 58,000...
Bulls Target Coca Cola and Silver Options
What do a soft-drink giant and a precious metal fund have in common? They both have bullish options trades today, that's what. Let's start with Coca-Cola (KO). The soda maker is one of the few members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a gain so far this year or...
Bears Keep the Pressure on Struggling Blue Chip
Options traders are sticking with one of the most consistent trends in the last two years. They're betting against a stock that once ruled the roost in global markets. General Electric (GE), once the world's most valuable company, has lost more than half its value...
Put Volume Swells in Junk Bond Fund
Options traders seem to be bracing for downside in junk bonds as negativity sweeps financial markets. The iShares High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) is having its worst month in over three years as investors shun leveraged companies. The largest options trade so far...
A Key Trend Line May Be at Risk
Just how much damage has been done to the charts so far this month? The answer may be "quite a lot." As readers of Market Insights know, a trend line has run beneath the S&P 500 all year. It provided a nice entry in late June, but now it may have turned from...
Energy Waffles as Iran Sanctions Draw Near
The S&P 500 bounced after last week's sharp drop, but oil hasn't been so lucky. Crude oil futures (@CL) closed yesterday at their lowest level in a month. The weakness comes as news events turn potentially bearish for the commodity. Government statistics on crude...
Health Care and Brazil Remain Strong
A lot of catalysts are vying for attention after last week's sharp drop, but two earlier trends seem to remain intact. First, health-care stocks enjoyed surprising positive results last earnings season. That made the SPDR Health Care ETF (XLV) the best-performing...
Gas, Gold and the S&P: Strategist Review
Stocks are in the midst of a terrible month but some other areas are rallying. In this post, we'll take a deeper look, and focus on some recent calls by strategists. First, the S&P 500 (@ES) lost 5.6 percent of its value in the first half of October. If it holds...
History May Favor Bulls This Quarter, Despite Volatility
Stocks are coming off their worst week since March, but history may favor the bulls. After all, we're in the fourth quarter -- a time of the year with a strong bias to the upside. Consider some of these points we crunched from TradeStation's wealth of chart data: The...
Guess Who’s Shopping in the Retail Space
Bears are shopping for downside in the retail space after a rough start to the month. A block of 40,000 December 47 puts was purchased this morning in SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) for $1.08. It was one of the largest transactions in the entire market. Puts can make...
Nasdaq Gets Slammed as Rates Shoot Higher
Stocks began the fourth quarter in the red as interest rates spiked and money streamed out of the technology sector. The S&P 500 slid 1 percent between Friday, September 28, and Friday, October 5. But that was nothing compared with the Nasdaq-100's 3 percent drop...
The Message Behind Yesterday’s Volatility Spike
Yesterday was a reminder for traders who forgot what volatility feels like. The S&P 500 had its biggest drop since June 25, and Cboe's Volatility Index ($VIX.X) had its biggest spike over the same period. Even more impressive, TradeStation data showed 23.6 million...
Emerging Markets? More Like Diverging Markets!
A sharp dichotomy has appeared in emerging markets as Asia struggles and oil rallies. The iShares MSCI India ETF (INDA) is down 8 percent in the last two weeks and the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (FXI) has declined 2 percent. Meanwhile, the iShares Brazil MSCI ETF...