AAPL was the clear winner of the day closing up more than 6 points on the session. The stock helped the NASDAQ close up nearly 60bps. Volume swelled on the day as earning season continues. At 2pm the Fed released its most recent decision and stocks for the most part moved higher. However, the last 20 minutes of trading saw sellers hit the market pushing stocks lower. The concern here is volume has been increasing day-over-day without much headway for the Dow and S&P 500. We will see if this market can shake free from this recent consolidation. Not a bad day for the NASDAQ and NASDAQ 100. Small caps limped higher, but continue to act well. You will need to stay focused and continue to manage risk.
Bonds pushed higher today with the 10 year finishing the session with a yield of 1.508%. TLT bounced more than 1% after the Fed’s announcement. 30 year treasuries now yield just 2.219%. The trend for yields remains lower and you have to wonder when the “higher rate” crowd will capitulate. Bonds continue to be in favor with buyers. Who they are do not matter to us. What they do with price is what matters.
Economic data wasn’t too exciting this morning. Mortgage applications sunk 11% while Durable Goods Orders dropped 4% in June. Expectations were for Durable Goods to only drop 1.4%. A big miss, but then again economic data has not mattered in quite some time. A week from Friday we’ll get a read on July jobs and if it is anything like June it will be a huge number.
This market is quite crazy and has been for some time. Even before Brexit we had the move off February lows. We had NEVER seen such a strong move like that ever in the stock market. Given this Central Bank driven market nothing should be a real surprise. The market is rewarding those who are quick with taking losses as well as quick with taking gains. Not much lasts more than a few days. If you have a winner for more than a week or two you are the extreme outlier. Swing and day traders are enjoying this market and chewing up most others. As long as you have a strong trading process and discipline there is reason you cannot succeed. If you are not let us help!
Let’s see what the rest of the week bring, but for now small caps and NASDAQ names are the place to be.
