Tag Archives: market lab report

Major averages closed once again near breakeven on mixed volume. The indices rallied at 2 p.m. EDT when The Fed released the minutes from its latest policy meeting, which showed that few Fed governors favored a rate hike in June. These gains were quickly reversed about an hour later, thus the majors made little progress overall. Overall the action shows the major indices holding tight near or at new highs after a prior strong move up and off of their 50-day moving averages 7 days ago. Meanwhile the small-cap Russell 2000 has regained its 50-day moving average and showed supporting action off the line yesterday as it closed well in the upper half its daily trading range. Investors should continue to focus on the action of individual stocks, a number of which continue to show positive action. Auto financial services dealer Credit Acceptance Corp. (CACC) had a pocket pivot. It is coming out of a 3-weeks tight formation. Earnings and sales are accelerating, pretax margin 57.4%, ROE 37.4%, group rank 8. Chinese-based online retail juggernaut Alibaba (BABA) had a pocket pivot after its recent gap up on a strong earnings report. Sales are accelerating, pretax margin 65.6%, ROE 37.8%, group rank 13. Keep in mind this is a bottom feeder type of pocket pivot so one should be quick to take profits when they have them in context with the overall chart. Footwear and apparel retailer Footlocker (FL) had a pocket pivot. This is a large cap retailer so this is another example of a stock where profits should be taken when you have them. .

Major averages closed near breakeven on higher volume, though the day was overall uneventful. In favor of the majors continuing their advance are: 1) The growing number of recently actionable names 2) The overall health of stocks with right side of bases firming up 3) The shrinking number of bulls by way of investor sentiment 4) Quantitative easing due to a slack economy. In favor of the majors continuing a sloppy sideways move: 1) Fears of a rate hike sooner than later 2) A news driven market – news out of Greece et al and any reports of economic strength making investors nervous about rate hikes 3) Two important internal indicators we use have yet to signal a green light to the current attempted uptrend. Odds favor a breakout over a breakdown.