May Is Rockin’ And Rollin’ So Far

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

Markets moved higher to start the week, led by a batch of strong corporate earnings reports and positive news from Europe. Most sectors posted gains, even energy despite the fact that oil prices were down today. Oil dropped about 22 cents to settle at $58.93 a barrel on the NYME.

Earnings season is winding down as about 72% of S&P 500 companies have now reported. Today we heard from Comcast (CMCSA) and Sysco (SYY). Comcast topped earnings estimates by about 7 cents a share, while Sysco reported a fall in quarterly profits. Sysco noted rising meat prices and a stronger dollar as having the largest impact on their decline in profits. Other notable companies we will hear later this week include Tesla (TSLA), Alibaba (BABA) and Toyota (TM)

As for economic data, the focus this week will be on the jobs report that will be released this Friday. Analysts seem to be back and forth regarding expectations of the report, so it will be interesting to see how it will impact markets.

All of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight headed higher with the leader being the financials (IYF) sporting a 0.76% gain. Lagging the bunch were the Global 100 with a modest advance of 0.12%.

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) edged up just a tad and closed the day as follows:

Domestic TTI: +2.60% (last close +2.49%)—Buy signal effective 10/22/2014

International TTI: +4.74% (last close +4.64%)—Buy signal effective 2/13/2015

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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