The focus on the markets lately have been the high-beta names,
but as you can see by today's downturn, traders are loving them one
day and shooting them the next. Ask any traders that are trying to
make a living in these active names and they will tell you it has
been a coin toss trying to figure out the day's trend.
Elsewhere, gold-related shares have also been at the top of
traders' lists, where the trend has been spiking higher the last
couple of weeks. I continue to mention how technically gold's
uptrend looks solid, but watch out for the "melt-up" action we are
seeing. You can easily see a reversal catch longs off-guard, so be
careful with names like Barrick Gold(
ABX
) and Agnico-Mines(
AEM
) . One of the stats that traders may be paying attention is that
88% of stocks on the NYSE are trading over their 50-day moving
averages. When we see these percentage this high, the market is
screaming that it is short-term overbought. Leading the way lower
today in the financial space were companies like M&T Bank(
MTB
) and Mastercard(
MA
) . Shares of Freeport McMoran(
FCX
) hit new 52-week highs as copper prices march back up to the $4 a
pound level.
Another interesting stat out today was ADP's national employment
report, which showed U.S. private employer payrolls fell by 39,000
jobs in September. A Reuters consensus forecast was for an increase
of 24,000 jobs. Clearly, the job market remains gloomy in the
short-term. One of the messages I am giving students in some of my
recent speaking appearances is to start putting seeds out early for
the career they're looking to get into. It pays to talk to people
in the field you are leaning toward. You may get some much-needed
insight as well as potential opportunities to land a key internship
or part-time work opportunity.
I hope everyone is enjoying the new video segments our editor
Tom Reese and I are producing on the site. Feel free to reach out
to us with more ideas on what you would like to see discussed. I am
also proud to announce that I have signed a book deal with FT
Press/Pearson, in which we will be publishing a book about dividend
stock investing, personal finance tips and more. I will be
providing everyone with more details as things begin to
materialize.
As always, be sure to check out our industry-leading
Best Dividend Stocks
list for our current recommendations. See you tomorrow!
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.