Going Nowhere

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Thur pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

It was a slow day on Wall Street today. All indexes ended slightly lower, mostly due to the fact that we heard a bit of disappointing news on the state of our economy.

The government reported today that the economy grew at a slightly lower-than-expected 1.5% in the third quarter. That was a sharp drop from the 3.9% growth in the second quarter and below the 1.6% growth expected by economists.

We received an impressive earnings report from Starbucks (SBUX) today. The company announced that sales were up 18% in Q3 on $4.9 billion in revenue that was largely attributed to a 4% increase in global consumption. Their earnings for Q3 came in at 43 cents a share, which is 6 cents higher than a year earlier.

Wall Street is still trying to figure out whether or not an interest rate hike could take place later this year, after the Fed’s comments yesterday. Most analysts seem to be of the mindset that the odds are 50-50 at this point.

6 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight closed lower during this directionless session. Leading to the downside was the Global 100 (IOO) with -0.50%, while gaining the most was Healthcare (XLV) with +0.45%.

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Stocks Up And Down, But End On Fire Wednesday

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Wed pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

Wall Street at first reacted negatively this morning after the Fed left interest rates unchanged and signaled a December rate hike was still on the table, but then recovered as the afternoon wore on with the Dow ending up nearly 200 points.

In earnings today, we heard from a number of tech companies. Camera maker GoPro (GPRO) disappointed after reporting a lower-than-expected rise in quarterly revenue, citing lower demand for its wearable cameras in the Americas. Twitter (TWTR) bombed on earnings due to slowing user growth. Yelp (YELP), on the other hand, posted a fantastic 40% in quarterly revenue as more local businesses are advertising on its platform.

Apple (AAPL) reported numbers that most analysts were expecting, so the stock did not move too much today. For the September quarter, it earned $1.96 per share on $51.5 billion in revenue and sold 48.05 million iPhones, which is a 22% jump compared to the previous year.

In M&A news, we heard today that IBM has agreed to acquire The Weather Company’s data and digital properties, a deal valued at more than $2 billion. IBM will own mobile and web assets, including weather.com, but it will not own the company’s primary TV asset, the Weather Channel.

9 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight closed higher lead by the Financials (IYF) with +2.32% while the only loser of the day was Consumer Staples (XLP) with -0.57%.

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Equities Uncertain In Anticipation Of Fed Meeting And Earnings

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Tue pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

Stocks dipped as investors awaited a Federal Reserve decision Wednesday on interest rates and Apple’s earnings report after the closing bell. Disappointing economic data on manufacturing and consumer confidence also weighed on markets. Energy stocks led the decliners as oil prices fell. A barrel of U.S. crude was down 2.2% to $43.03.

Investors are in wait-and-see mode as the Fed kicks off a two-day meeting Tuesday, which could shed light on whether the nation’s central bank will hike interest rates this year for the first time in nearly 10 years. Wall Street is not expecting a hike at this meeting, but will be looking for clues as to whether the Fed will pull the trigger at its last meeting of the year in December.

Still to come this week, Wall Street pros will be closely watching the profit report from iPhone and iPad maker Apple (AAPL) after today’s closing bell. The world’s most-valuable company has seen its stock gains trail other big tech names, such as search-giant Google parent Alphabet (GOOG) and online retail giant Amazon.com (AMZN).

Again, 2 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight bucked the trend and closed higher. Leading the charge to the upside was Healthcare (XLV) with +1.81% while on the downside, the Global 100 (IOO) and the Mid-Cap Value (IWS) lost -0.75%.

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Stocks Quiet To Kick Off The Week

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Mon pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

Wall Street, which is riding a four-week winning streak, kicked off a busy week quietly as it awaited a slew of earnings releases, fresh data on the economy and a Wednesday Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates. The S&P 500 and Dow both fell slightly, while the Nasdaq stayed put.

The third-quarter earnings landscape has been better than expected thus far, with 7 out of 10 companies topping sharply reduced forecasts. This week, traders will digest earnings reports from 169 companies in the S&P 500. Major market-moving earnings reports don’t kick in until Tuesday though, when iPhone maker Apple (AAPL), automaker Ford (F), drug makers Merck (MRK) and Pfizer (PFE) and package delivery giant UPS (UPS) report.

We heard some news on the housing market today. Reports came in that sales of new homes plunged sharply in September to the slowest pace in 10 months, as higher prices and slower overall economic growth weigh on the housing market. The slowdown has yet to hit sales of existing homes as drastically, but the September pullback in newly built properties was severe to say the least.

Only 2 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight managed to eke out a gain during this sideways trending session. Taking the lead was Consumer Discretionaries (XLY) with +0.70%, while the Mid-Cap Value ETF (IWS) sagged -0.58%.

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ETFs/Mutual Funds On The Cutline – Updated Through 10/23/2015

Ulli ETFs on the Cutline Contact

Below are the latest ETF Cutline reports, which show how far above or below their respective long-term trend lines (39 week SMA) my currently tracked ETFs/MFs are positioned.

The first report covers the ETF Master List from Thursday’s StatSheet and includes 381 ETFs, of which currently 103 (last week 69) are hovering in bullish territory.

The second report includes only High Volume ETFs. To clarify, High Volume (HV) ETFs are defined as those with an average daily volume of $10 million or higher.

These ETFs are generated from my selected list of some 97 that I use in my advisor practice. It cuts out the “noise,” which simply means it eliminates those ETFs that I would never buy because of their volume limitations. 18 ETFs (last week 12) have managed to remain in bullish territory after the recent market volatility.

The third report covers Mutual Funds on the Cutline. There are currently 223 (last week 49) above the line and 577 below it out of the 800 that I follow.

Take a look:

  1. ETF Master Cutline Report
  2. ETF High Volume Cutline Report
  3. MF Cutline Report

In case you are not familiar with some of the terminology used in the reports, please read the Glossary of Terms.

If you missed the original post about the Cutline approach, you can read it here.

One Man’s Opinion: Is Manufacturing The Only Weak Spot In The US Domestic Economy?

Ulli Market Review Contact

ManThe earnings estimate from US companies have been quite encouraging though a relatively small number of S&P 500 companies have reported their results thus far, said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust.

While revenues have failed to meet expectations, earnings have managed to beat expectations although the expectations were revised down a little bit, he noted.

Asked to explain his investment strategy following the significant recovery in risky assets, particularly after the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s month-to-date jump of seven percent, Luke said recent stock performance has been very encouraging as the S&P 500 is just a few points below where it started the year. That’s a far cry from where the markets had slumped in August and September.

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