Indexes Are A Mixed Bag As Boeing Weighs On Blue-Chips; Europe Struggles On Growth Worries

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

US equities closed mixed as investors remained worried about the debt ceiling negotiations and global economic growth while a rebound for Apple Inc buoyed the technology sector.

In economic news, the World Bank sharply cut its global growth forecast for this year citing austerity measures, low business confidence and high unemployment in advanced economies. The bank lowered its outlook for global economic growth to 2.4 percent from an earlier estimate of 3 percent.

Separately, the US Federal Reserve reported a rise in industrial production for the second straight month in December as demand for business equipment picked up even as lawmakers battled over the federal budget. Industrial production rose 0.3 percent in December after a 1 percent jump in November.

The US Fed’s Beige Book survey from 12 districts found rising home and car sales drove economic activity higher in December.

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7 ETF Model Portfolios You Can Use – Updated through 1/15/2013

Ulli Model ETF Portfolios Contact

With the Fed’s monetary pump fest continuing at a rate of some $85 billion per month, it’s not surprising that a good part of that money flows into equities pushing the indexes higher without much of a pullback or without any regards to underlying fundamentals.

The S&P 500 added about 1% since last week’s report, and yesterday’s awe inspiring 7 point pullback was quickly “corrected” as closing in the red by more than 1 point is simply not acceptable.

How long this relentless move higher can continue is the big unknown, but to my way of thinking markets can only be controlled by central planners up to a certain point until some connection to underlying economic realities will have to come into play again.

We may have seen a crack in the armor yesterday as the most widely held stock, Apple, succumbed and clearly pierced its fiercely defended $500 level to the downside.

Here’s the latest update for our Model ETF Portfolios:

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Early Sell Off Followed By Higher Close On Mixed Economic Data; Europe Ends Unchanged

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

US stocks fought back, rebounding from earlier losses Tuesday as a rally in retail and transportation shares eclipsed concerns about discussions on raising the debt ceiling in Washington, while further weakness for Apple weighed on the technology sector.

On the economic news front, reports showed US retail sales rose 0.5 percent in December, led by an improvement in auto sales while producer prices fell 0.2 percent. Manufacturing, however, continued to be a weak spot with the Empire State Index, the gauge of manufacturing activity in the New York region, slipping for the sixth straight month in January as the industry faced the effects of lackluster demand overseas and fiscal uncertainty at home, according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

With as little as a month until the US runs out of money to honor its liabilities, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged the Congress to raise the debt ceiling swiftly while President Obama warned Republicans not to leverage the need for a debt-limit increase to force through spending cuts.

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Dell Rally Is Offset By Apple Slide In The US; Europe Declines For A Third Day On Data

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

US equities closed mixed Monday, with two of the three benchmark indexes slipping into negative territory as Apple Inc’s near four percent drop amid concern about iPhone sales offset a rally in Dell Inc.

Apple, the most valuable company, sank 3.6 percent that wiped out $17 billion in investor wealth after the Wall Street Journal and Japan’s Nikkei reported the smartphone maker had cut iPhone production on weak demand.

Shares of Dell surged 13 percent, the most since October 2008, after Bloomberg news reported the Texas-based PC-maker is in buyout talks with private-equity firms while Hewlett-Packard jumped 4.9 percent after market researcher Gartner Inc said the company reclaimed the top PC-maker ranking from Lenovo Group Ltd. JP Morgan upgraded the stock to neutral from underweight.

President Barack Obama urged the Republican lawmakers not to use the debt ceiling as leverage in negotiations on spending-cuts while addressing a news conference in Washington. The opposition has already hinted at government default or shutdown as a means to force cuts in government spending.

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ETFs/Mutual Funds On The Cutline – Updated Through 1/11/2013

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 398 ETFs, of which currently 363 (last week 362) of them 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 93 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. 84 ETFs (last week 84) have managed to remain in bullish territory after the recent market volatility.

The third report covers Mutual Funds on the Cutline. There are currently 781 (last week 771) above the line and 78 below it out of the 859 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.

Last Week In Review: ETF News And Blog Posts To 1/13/2013

Ulli Market Review Contact

In case you missed it, here’s a summary of the ETF topics and market reviews I posted to my blog during the week ending on 1/13/2013.

The pace of last week’s pump fest slowed noticeably, but the S&P 500 managed to add some 6 points over the last five trading sessions.

As I have facetiously posted before, it appears to be downright illegal for an index to close in the red, as the automatic last hour afternoon lift-a-thon always throws an assist when market direction appears to look dicey. This is how things work now in a centrally planned market, which by now no longer resembles any similarity to the actual underlying economy.

If you have not noticed this phenomenon, you can review the intraday chart of the S&P 500 at day’s end; it’s posted daily with my market commentary.

Over past week, we covered the following:

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