XLP, the SPDR consumer staples ETF, just made a new all-time high on May 10th before backing off, and coming down hard. In contrast, most major U.S. indices peaked last year, and some even earlier, like the Dow Transports, which … Continued
One look at Chart 1 and it is easy to see what a squeeze can do to short interest. In the two weeks ended January 29th, short interest on XLF, the SPDR financial ETF, peaked at 146.8 million. The ETF … Continued
There is a lot of excitement among non-commercial futures traders about spot gold’s prospects. In the 12 weeks since February 9th through May 3rd, they nearly tripled net longs in gold futures – from 98,428 to 271,648 contracts – to … Continued
From up 30.2 percent between February 11th low and April 21st high to down 7.3 percent since that high, ITB, the iShares U.S. home construction ETF, has had its share of ups and downs. There is likely a crossover in … Continued
Versus large-caps, small-caps inherently suffer from shorter operational history, less access to capital, lower trading liquidity, lack of support from most mutual funds, lack of familiarity, lack of/less Wall Street research, and what not. Understandably, they are regarded as risky. … Continued
Off February 11th lows through recent highs, U.S. stocks rallied handsomely, ranging from nearly 23 percent on the Russell 2000 small cap index to nearly 17 percent on the S&P 500 large cap index. Probably enough to take care of … Continued
The S&P 500 large cap index lost 1.3 percent last week. Intra-day, off the April 20th high through last Friday’s low, it is now down 2.8 percent. The index retreated after unsuccessfully trying to break out of a declining trend … Continued
Yet another fortnight and yet another show of strength by equity bulls. During the March 31st-April 15th period, the S&P 500 large cap index rallied one percent, the NYSE composite 1.5 percent and the Nasdaq composite 1.4 percent, among others. … Continued
ITB, the iShares Dow Jones U.S. home construction ETF, has rallied strong the past couple of months. From the February 11th low through the intra-day high yesterday, it jumped north of 30 percent, rallying past its 50- and 200-day moving … Continued
Quite an anti-climax! Sunday’s Doha oil talks, that is. Even more so is how markets reacted on Monday. The much-hyped and much-hoped-for agreement for an output freeze/cut failed to materialize. Crude oil had rallied strongly into these talks, so a … Continued