Written by Gary
US stocks slipped today as investors booked profits after a record day on Wall Street that propelled the DOW above 21,000 for the first time ever. Crude prices continue to slip lower while the US dollar remains strong.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
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Traders Corner – Health of the Market
| Index | Description | Current Value |
| Investors.com Members Sentiment: | % Bullish (the balance is Bearish) | 75% |
| CNN’s Fear & Greed Index | Above 50 = greed, below 50 = fear | 77% |
| Investors Intelligence sets the breath | Above 50 bullish | 69% |
| StockChart.com Overbought / Oversold Index ($NYMO) | anything below -30 / -40 is a concern of going deeper. Oversold conditions on the NYSE McClellan Oscillator usually bounce back at anything over -50 and reverse after reaching +40 oversold. | +4.29 |
| StockChart.com NYSE % of stocks above 200 DMA Index ($OEXA200R) | $NYA200R chart below is the percentage of stocks above the 200 DMA and is always a good statistic to follow. It can depict a trend of declining equities which is always troubling, especially when it drops below 60% – 55%. Following a major market correction, the conditions for safe re-entry are when: a) Daily $OEXA200R rises above 65% Secondary Bullish Indicators: a) RSI is POSITIVE (above 50) b) Slow STO is POSITIVE (black line above red line) c) MACD is POSITIVE (black line above red line) | 89% |
| StockChart.com NYSE Bullish Percent Index ($BPNYA) | Next stop down is ~57, then ~44, below that is where we will most likely see the markets crash. | 71% |
| StockChart.com S&P 500 Bullish Percent Index ($BPSPX) | In support zone and rising. ~62, ~57, ~45 at which the markets are in a full-blown correction. | 80% |
| StockChart.com 10 Year Treasury Note Yield Index ($TNX) | ten year note index value | 24.94 |
| StockChart.com Consumer Discretionary ETF (XLY) | As long as the consumer discretionary holds above [66.88], all things being equal, it is a good sign for stocks and the U.S. economy | 87.45 |
| StockChart.com NYSE Composite (Liquidity) Index ($NYA) | Markets move inverse to institutional selling and this NYA Index is followed by Institutional Investors | 11,597 |
There will be “trouble for equity markets” if the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note moves beyond 3%, warned Jeffrey Gundlach, while another bond king stated 2.6% was the key level to watch.
According to Bill Gross, the number is much more important than Dow 20K, the price of oil or dollar strength, as it would signal a bear bond market.
What Is Moving the Markets
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
| Snap’s shares pop after $3.4 billion IPONEW YORK (Reuters) – Snap Inc’s shares continued to defy doubts about the company’s early-stage business model and slowing user growth, jumping nearly 50 percent in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. |
| U.S. jobless claims near 44-year low; rate hike expected this monthWASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to near a 44-year low last week, pointing to further tightening of the labor market even as economic growth appears to have remained moderate in the first quarter. |
| Exclusive: China’s ZTE expected to plead guilty over Iran sales – sourceNEW YORK (Reuters) – Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp is nearing an agreement to plead guilty to U.S. criminal charges and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties over allegations it violated U.S. laws that restrict sale of U.S. technology to Iran, a person familiar with the matter said. |
| Companies back transgender rights in Supreme Court fightWASHINGTON (Reuters) – A coalition of 53 companies on Thursday backed transgender rights at the U.S. Supreme Court, signing on to a brief supporting a Virginia student who is fighting to use the school bathroom that corresponds with his gender identity. |
| Wall Street dips as investors book profits after record day(Reuters) – U.S. stocks slipped on Thursday as investors booked profits after a record day on Wall Street that propelled the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 21,000 for the first time ever. |
| Peak gasoline demand looms with engine efficiency gainsLONDON (Reuters) – Demand for gasoline in the United States, which accounts for a tenth of global oil consumption, is expected to peak next year as engines become more efficient, WoodMackenzie analysts said. |
| Forex brokers eye U.S. market as Trump vows to deregulateNEW YORK (Reuters) – Retail currency brokers are considering operating in the United States after a nearly seven-year absence, if President Donald Trump is able to carry through on his pledge to deregulate financial markets. |
| Price war triggers Kroger’s first same-store sales drop in 13 years(Reuters) – Supermarket operator Kroger Co surprised analysts with its first quarterly same-store sales decline in 13 years, as competition intensified in the U.S. grocery industry, sending its shares down as much as 5.6 percent on Thursday. |
| U.S. Senators draft bill to boost employee private stock ownershipWASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan pair of lawmakers on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee are planning to introduce a bill that aims to entice private corporations to give their employees larger equity stakes in their companies and promote longer-term investing. |
| The Next Ponzi: $4.6BN Long-Term-Care Insurer To Liquidate In Pa; Biggest Healthcare Failure EverWe spend a lot of time talking about the various pension ponzi schemes that will inevitably wreak havoc on the global financial system at some point in the not so distant future. That said, you should also be keeping an eye on so-called long-term-care (LTC) health insurance providers who, as Penn Treaty Network of America Insurance teaches us this morning, have been perpetuating a ponzi scheme of their own. After eight full years of legal battles between state regulators, investors, and policyholders, Pennsylvania Court Judge Hannah Leavitt signed off on a plan Wednesday to liquidate Penn Treaty Network America Insurance and its affiliate, American Network Insurance, the largest such health insurance liquidation in history. The decision leaves solvent insurers, their owners, and customers to pick up the cost for more than 70% of the up to $4.6 billion in projected long-term-care claims expected for 76,000 aging Penn Treaty customers nationwide. Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioners Teresa Miller said that after a grueling eight-year legal battle the companies’ financial difficulties were deemed “too great to be remedied.” Per the PA Insurance Department:
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| Silver Is Collapsing On Massive VolumeAt exactly 1130ET (as Europe closed), someone decided to unload over $2 billion notional of silver into the futures pits…
Over 23,000 Silver futures contracts suddenly puked into the market as soon as Europe closed…
Silve rhad managed to get back most of the losses post-election but once the selling broke 18.155 (200DMA) it accelerated…this is the biggest drop since The Fed hiked rates in December.
Gold is also getting hit but far less aggressively…
Yes, the dollar index is higher but not moving aggressively.
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| SNAP Initiated With Sell Rating, $10 Price Target At PivotalPivotal Research’s Brian Wieser braved the storm today and issued the first “Sell” research on Snap Inc.
Snap is a promising early stage company with significant opportunity ahead of itself. Unfortunately, it is significantly overvalued given the likely scale of its long-term opportunity and the risks associated with executing against that opportunity. Significant ongoing dilution from share-based compensation will likely represent an additional negative consideration for the stock. We value Snap at $10 per share on a YE2017 basis. As the stock priced well above this level in its IPO, we rate its shares Sell. Snap presents investors with the opportunity to invest in the company behind an innovative, large-scale, and distinctively young-skewing platform which is establishing itself as a magnet for business unit talent and content partners alike. Snap also offers investors a share of the significant economic potential that should follow from Snap’s ongoing business expansion. At the same time, there are significant risks offsetting these opportunities. Investors in Snap will be exposed to an upstart facing aggressive competition from much larger companies, with a core user base that is not growing by much and which is only relatively elusive. It has a promising and innovative advertising offering, but so far it is still mostly unproven and difficult to quantify its ultimate scale. Investors will also be exposed to what appears to be a sub-optimal corporate structure operated by a senior management team lacking experience transforming a successful new … |
| Organization Tied To David Brock Used Taxpayer Money From Illicit Israeli Political Intervention To Fund Clinton CampaignVia Disobedient Media A case of US governmental meddling in the political affairs of a foreign ally previously investigated by Congress appears to have also been part of a scheme to launder taxpayer money and use it to fund the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a crowdsourced investigation online has revealed. The effort has revealed that organizations tied to high ranking members of Shareblue and its holding company conspired with John Kerry’s Department of State to use taxpayer funds in an effort to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu as the Prime Minister of Israel. The funds appear to potentially have then been laundered and returned via a campaign consulting group tied to former President Barack Obama, ultimately being used to fund the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. I. Funds Passed From The Department Of State Were Used By OneVoice In An Attempt To Unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Peter Daou is the CEO of Shareblue’s holding company, True Blue Media LLC. Mr. Daou played an integral role in the site’s transformation from True Blue Media to Shareblue. Mr. Daou was al … |
| The Biotech Stock Safety NetDirt cheap borrowing costs for big pharma gives risky biotechs a boost. |
| Why Platinum Can’t Beat SapphireBig banks have advantages over American Express in the credit-card rewards race. |
| Eurozone Inflation’s Hidden ResilienceThe common wisdom is that eurozone core inflation is weak. Another take is that it has proved resilient. |
| In One Chart: Bitcoin is now worth more than an ounce of gold for the first time everOne unit of so-called digital gold is now worth more than an ounce of the real thing. |
| Snap shares soar in debut after largest IPO since 2014Snap Inc. shares opened up 41% Thursday morning, as the Snapchat parent company made its highly anticipated debut on the New York Stock Exchange. |
| Market Extra: Has bitcoin matched gold’s status? One expert weighs inBitcoin just exceeded the price of an ounce of gold for the first time, but the digital currency is still a “speculators’ market” and not yet a proxy for the precious metal, says author Paul Mladjenovic in a MarketWatch interview. |
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