A Shaky Start Followed By A Strong Finish

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Thur pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

After slumping early one, the major indexes managed to climb out of a hole and, with the exception of the Dow, managed to squeeze out a tiny gain.

Not helping matters early on were worse than expected jobless claims numbers, which followed last week’s disappointing labor market report. Crude oil finally found a reason to turn around by gaining over 1% after having lost some 3% for the month.

Right now, it appears that the market is stuck in a tight range after having shown some decent gains for the year. Possibly, some time maybe needed for this relentless move up to cool off before a new catalyst can take the markets to a higher level.

On the other hand, the ever growing menu of geopolitical tensions may prove to be a glass ceiling so the downside risk is ever present, especially with so much complacency in the market place. I have not said it in a while, but have your exit strategy in place and be ready to execute, should the major trend turn bearish all of a sudden.

8 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight edged up; however, no new highs were made.

2. ETFs in the Spotlight

In case you missed the announcement and description of this section, you can read it here again.

It features 10 broadly diversified ETFs from my HighVolume list as posted every Monday. Furthermore, they are screened for the lowest MaxDD% number meaning they have been showing better resistance to temporary sell offs than all others over the past year.

Here are the 10 candidates:

MaxDD

All of them are currently remaining in “buy” mode, meaning their prices are above their respective long term trend lines by the percentage indicated (%M/A).

Year to date, here’s how the above candidates have fared so far:

YTD

To be clear, the first table above shows the position of the various ETFs in relation to their respective long term trend lines (%M/A), while the second one tracks their trailing sell stops in the “Off High” column. The “Action” column will signal a “Sell” once the -7.5% point is taken out in the “Off High” column.

3. Domestic Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)

Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) meandered with the indexes and changed barely from yesterday:

Domestic TTI: +2.65% (last close +2.62%)

International TTI: +1.98% (last close +2.11%)

Disclosure: I am obliged to inform you that I, as well as advisory clients of mine, own some of these listed ETFs. Furthermore, they do not represent a specific investment recommendation for you, they merely show which ETFs from the universe I track are falling within the guidelines specified.

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