The latest (mid-June) short-interest reports are intriguing in some respects. On both the NYSE Composite and Nasdaq Composite, short interest jumped period-over-period, to 16.2 billion and 8.9 billion respectively – up 3.6 percent and 3.4 percent, in that order. (Check … Continued
Over the past couple of days, U.S. housing produced two good reports for the month of May. Monday, existing home sales were published, coming in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million units – up 5.1 percent month-over-month … Continued
The Friday before January 25th Greek elections, the euro closed at $1.123. Yesterday, one euro bought $1.133. Since anti-austerity Syriza party swept to victory late January in Greece, the euro – by default FXE, the Currency Shares Euro Trust ETF … Continued
Last Thursday saw a powerful rally in stocks. Several indices went on to notch new records. The Nasdaq Composite surpassed its March 2000 intra-day high. The Russell 2000 Small Cap Index broke out to a new high. Several others, including … Continued
IWM, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF, broke out Thursday, and it is time to pay heed to that famous quote, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” To refresh, back on May 26th, hypothetically … Continued
From the mid-May high of $49.75 to the low this Monday of $47.46, XLP, the SPDR Consumer Staples ETF, quickly lost 4.6 percent. In three weeks! Monday produced a doji, right around its 200-day moving average. By that time, daily … Continued
There is a trade brewing on GLD, the SPDR Gold Trust ETF. First some background. Ever since gold peaked in September 2011, the metal has lost its luster. Back then, GLD had $77.7 billion in assets, becoming the ETF with … Continued
The Consumer Discretionary SPDR ETF (XLY) made an all-time high of 77.89 toward the end of April, and has more or less traded sideways in the past three months – closing Monday at 76.52. This ETF is an important one … Continued
The PowerShares QQQ (110.05), the ETF that tracks the Nasdaq 100, seems to want to go lower, at least near-term. When the Qs broke out of 104-plus in February, it quickly added nearly four percent, rallying seven-plus percent for the … Continued
Buy-the-dippers have been a roadblock to shorts’ success. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that the prevailing buy-the-dip mentality in U.S. equities has done to this bull market what oxygen does to a fire. When O is present, … Continued