What Many Traders Are Waiting For
This is the last week of
Q3 and many traders are waiting for more readjustments of earnings
from companies. There has not been much goods news to report of late. The Leading Indicators for August came in at
-0.2% vs. consensus of -0.1%; July revised to -0.1% vs. -0.4%.
It has been a somewhat difficult trading day this Monday. After the open, the
markets dropped immediately and broke key support zones to trade at new lows for
the year. There are very few strong sectors on the day,
Tobacco, Oil Service
(
$OSX.X |
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PowerRating) and Natural Gas. The
weaker sectors are: Telecom, Wireless, Networking,
Retail, Semiconductor
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$SOX.X |
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PowerRating), Airline
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$XAL.X |
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PowerRating),
Broker Dealer
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$XBD.X |
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PowerRating), Storage, Drug
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$DRG.X |
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PowerRating)
and Steel.
November crude oil
(
CLX2 |
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PowerRating) is breaking the key $30.00 a barrel level, a 19-month high.
Technically crude is breaking out of an ascending triangle. Fundamentally,
Iraq has refused to accept any new United Nations resolutions on weapons
inspections, raising the chances of a US attack on the #2 producer of oil in the
world. This has helped push the Phlx Oil Service Sector
(
$OSX.X |
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PowerRating)
into the positive.
The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
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PowerRating) index at one
point fell below support at 829 the -1.0 Vol. band on fairly light volume.
From this point, the next support is at 823 with secondary support at 819. If
the S&P can move higher, resistance is at 835 with secondary resistance at 840.
The Nasdaq Composite
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$COMPQ |
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PowerRating) has
hit a five-year low. The Nasdaq 100 has fallen to its -1.0 Volatility Band
(848). The Nasdaq Composite is now trading up off of the worst levels of the day
and is hitting a resistance level at around 1194.00
Express Scripts
(
ESRX |
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PowerRating) is forming a
pullback from its recent high. ESRX is carrying a
3-month
relative strength rank of 93 from TradingMarkets.com.
Biosite
(
BSTE |
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PowerRating) is pulling back after a
thrust higher. The stock is holding a
3-month
relative strength rank of 98 from TradingMarkets.com.
Patterson Dental
Co.
(
PDCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is breaking out from a cup-and-handle with increasing
volume.
PDCO has a TradingMarkets.com RS3 rating of 92.
Nasdaq Breadth
Adv: 791 UpVol: 155794212
Dec: 2370 DnVol: 586624030
Net: -1579 Net: -430829818
NYSE Breadth
Adv: 862 UpVol: 16485110
Dec: 2301 DnVol: 58816265
Net: -1439 Net: -42331155