1. Moving the Markets
U.S. stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday, with the Nasdaq outperforming, as investors eyed slightly lower bond yields and mostly shook off the morning’s mixed economic data.
In M&A news, CVS Health (CVS) said today that it has agreed to buy pharmacy services provider Omnicare (OCR) for $12.7 billion. The acquisition is foreseen to be a move to expand its presence in the senior care market. Omnicare, the nation’s largest provider of pharmaceutical services in nursing homes, has 160 locations in assisted living and long-term care facilities in 47 states in the U.S. To complete the deal, CVS said it has secured a $13 billion short-term loan from Barclays and will eventually issue a debt or get term loans before the deal closes.
In earnings news, shares of Best Buy (BBY) surged 3.9% today after reporting earnings and revenue that easily beat Wall Street estimates. The consumer electronics retailer reported net income of $129 million, or 36 cents a share, in the first quarter. That was down from $461 million, or $1.31 a share, a year ago.
And, as for the economy, the consumer price index will be released tomorrow. Let’s stay tuned to see how Friday will turn out.
8 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight inched higher as Consumer Discretionaries (XLY) took the lead with a 0.39% gain. On the downside, Financials (IYF) lost 0.32%.
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) headed higher but by only a small margin:
Domestic TTI: +3.06% (last close +2.84%)—Buy signal effective 10/22/2014
International TTI: +5.73% (last close +5.49%)—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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