The Quiet Before The Storm
Stock are trading quietly higher ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on
interest rate policy. The decision comes at 2:15 PM ET. The Fed is
expected to cut interest rates between .25% and .50%.
The Nasdaq is up 11.77 at 2076.39, the Dow is up 32 at
10,505, and the S&P 500 is up .65 at 1217.41.
Airlines
(
XAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.94%, Internets
(
GIN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.66%,
and securities broker/dealers
(
XBD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.09%, are leading as oil services
(
OSX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-4.09%, oil
(
XOI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and semiconductors
(
SOX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.07%, lag.
The semiconductor index
(
SOX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is making a comeback —
logging its sixth consecutive day of higher lows and erasing earlier losses —
despite Xilinx
(
XLNX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) downgrading its quarterly earnings estimates. Xilinx
is the most heavily weighted stock on the SOX and is down 9% at 39.91.
SOX component Vitesse Semiconductors
(
VTSS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) also
warned last night, saying it would lose money this quarter. That the semi index
is able to come back despite the negative news is a healthy sign.
Platronics
(
PLT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is showing signs of accumulation at a bottom. When
volatility contracts, then a stock logs an outside day at a bottom on
exponentially rising volume —
+50%, +100%, +200% day-on-day — then someone is accumulating at a low. PLT is up
3.87 at at 23.25.
Advanced Fibre Communications
(
AFCI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is triggering out of its three-
(daily)
bar triangle off the June 21 expansion bar, setting up for a test of the May 22
high. This company makes telecommunications access products and is in the
absolute weakest of the major industry groups — fiber optic components —
but maybe not for long.