1. Moving the Markets
Stocks ended higher Monday, with the Dow basically flat, as investors grappled with the consequences of a victory for Greece’s anti-austerity Syriza party in general elections.
In corporate news, Microsoft (MSFT) shares dipped slightly today, even after the software giant reported a spike in revenue and profits in line with analyst estimates. The company posted $26.5 billion in Q2 revenue, compared with $24.5 billion a year ago. As Microsoft enters its 40th year of existence, its middle-age persona is increasingly keen to major changes in computing — including Big Data, mobility and the cloud — while reducing its dependence on PCs.
In the European Union today, European equities rose and the Euro strengthened, while Greek stocks retreated, after Syriza, whose leader has pledged to renegotiate an international bailout, won 149 out of a possible 300 seats in Parliament.
In earnings, prepare for a flood of earnings reports this week from some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, including Apple (AAPL), Yahoo (YHOO), Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOG).
All of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight gained with 6 of them remaining on the plus side YTD as section 2 shows.
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:
The above table simply demonstrates the magnitude with which some of the ETFs are fluctuating in regards to their positions above or below their respective individual trend lines (%M/A). A break below, represented by a negative number, shows weakness, while a break above, represented by a positive percentage, shows strength.
For more ETF/Mutual fund choices, be sure to reference Thursday’s StatSheet.
Year to date, here’s how the above candidates have fared so far:
Again, 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 has been taken out in the “Off High” column.
3. Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)
Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) improved again, with the International one now having crawled slightly above its trend line into bullish territory. I will need to see more upside momentum before changing the call from bearish to bullish.
Here’s how we closed:
Domestic TTI: +2.99% (last close +2.81%)—Buy signal since 10/22/2014
International TTI: +0.06% (last close -0.47%)—Sell signal effective 12/15/14
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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