1. Moving the Markets
In the international realm, investors appeared to take a sideline approach as eurozone finance ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss debt-strapped Greece. The fate of cash-strapped Greece, which has become front-page news as its new anti-austerity government looks to get bailout concessions from its eurozone creditors, could become clearer as an emergency meeting of finance ministers was addressing Greece’s appeal for more generous bailout conditions.
In auto news, after markets closed today, Tesla Motors (TSLA) said that it lost $107.6 million in Q4 2014. This did not bode well with investors, given the fact that for all of 2014, the maker of electric luxury cars reported a loss of $294 million, vs. a loss of $74 million for all of 2013. Commenting on the matter, Musk said Tesla plans to boost annual production from a projected 50,000 cars this year to 500,000 by 2020, saying that strong markets in the U.S. and China will support such enormous growth.
And in tech news, Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) showed more signs of a rebound in its latest quarter, as demand for new hardware outweighed a headwind from currency exchange rates. The big manufacturer of networking equipment said revenues increased 7% in the second fiscal period, an improvement over the 1.3% growth reported for the first period. Net income apparently rose 68%, despite costs associated with recent job cuts.
Our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight provided a mixed picture with 5 of them gaining and 5 of them slipping; however, one of them made a new high for the year.
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 hundreds of 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) also were mixed with the domestic one gaining and the International one slipping. Again, I am still on hold with the International TTI waiting for more upside confirmation before becoming outright bullish.
Here’s how we closed today:
Domestic TTI: +3.05% (last close +2.96%)—Buy signal since 10/22/2014
International TTI: +0.74% (last close +1.04%)—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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