Why The Markets May Be Moving Up
On this first day of August at the midpoint of trading,
the indices are building bases after dropping off from a weak opening.
Today’s economic reports were not positive, showing signs the economy is
still recovering, but this week the markets have shrugged off most negative news
and have rallied back in the second half of trade. August traditionally is the
second-worst month of trading on the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq.Â
Intraday support on the Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is at around 1290 and overhead resistance is at around 1310/1320. The Nasdaq
100
(
$NDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell to its -1.50 Volatility Band before pulling up to
higher ground.
The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell on the
economic news, the July ISM Index slipped to 50.5 (consensus) from 56.2. This
raised the question about the pace of the economic recovery and forced trading
curbs to kick in. The SPX fell to its -2.0 Volatility Band and then worked into
a 1,2,3 double bottom.
Total volume traded is light to moderate. Both
the NYSE and the Nasdaq have over 800 million shares traded and look like they could reach 1.6 billion
by the end of the day.
Some of the stronger sectors on the day are:
Natural Gas
(
$XNG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Sept natural gas
(
NGU2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Gold &
Silver
(
$XAU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Paper Packaging, Housewares, Food
Distribution and Environmental Services.
Disappointing Q2 earnings from Exxon/Mobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Adobe
(
ADBE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) hurt their respective sectors, Oil
(
$XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Software
(
$GSO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Other sectors that are
negative are Footwear, Consumer Finance, Drug
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Brokerage
(
$$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Biotech
(
$BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Homebuilding.
Loews Corp.
(
LTR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is hitting resistance at
the 20-day moving average. LTR is carrying a
3-month
relative strength rank of 33 with a downtrending ADX of 58 from
TradingMarkets.com.
IPC Holdings
(
IPCR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is breaking above the resistance line with strong volume.
Affiliated
Management Group
(
AMG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is wedging downward out of a counter trend rally.
AMG is holding on to a
3-month
relative strength rank of 19 with a downtrending ADX of 50 from
TradingMarkets.com.
Affiliated
Computer Services
(
ACS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is looking vulnerable after running higher off its
recent low. ACS carries a
3-month
relative strength rank of 20 with a downtrending ADX of 34 from
TradingMarkets.com.
Nasdaq Breadth
Adv: 1121 UpVol: 17303640
Dec: 2053 DnVol: 64843501
Net: -932 Net: -47539861
NYSE Breadth
Adv: 1177 UpVol: 20901184
Dec: 1949 DnVol: 74886090
Net: -772 Net: -53984906