Monday, January 30, 2017, 11:45 AM, EST
- NASDAQ Composite -1.1% Dow -0.8% S&P 500 -1.0% Russell 2000 -1.8%
- NASDAQ Advancers: 340 / Decliners: 1928
- Today’s Volume (100day avg): +4%
There is a shift into defensive sectors this morning, as Utilities opened today’s session the only group in the green. Crude Oil is lower for the 2nd consecutive session, likely weighing on Energy stocks, as the S&P Energy Index is off by more than 1.25%. All major indices are on pace for their steepest daily decline of 2017.
- Riskier assets appear to be less attractive to start the week, with the Russell 2000 dropping by 1.8%, and more than 93% of the constituents trading in the red. If trend continues, today’s advance/decline ratio would post its lowest percentage since September 9th.
- On the economic front, Personal income (+0.3%) and spending (+0.5%) in December was positive, showing signs the holiday spending season was strong. Separately, Pending home sales saw a surprising jump this past month (+1.6%), as buyers returned to the market after the post-election increase borrowing cost increase. Wednesday’s FOMC Rate Decision will grab the most headlines, but expectations are low (13%) the committee will raise rates for the 2nd straight committee meeting.
Technical Take:
Animal spirits were rampant last week with the Dow, S&P500, Nasdaq Composite, Nasdaq 100, NYSE Composite, and the Transportation Index all making new all-time highs. The small cap Russell 2000 however ended last week 1.6% below its all-time high. With markets today in risk-off mode, the Russell is leading to the downside with a decline of (1.95%), on pace for its biggest loss in over four months. While the index remains above last week’s lows, 1,342, it has broken down below its 50-day moving average, now 1,356. A week ago it dipped below the 50-day sma on an intraday basis but managed to close back above it. This time feels different as more than 90% of the index is in the red. A break below last week’s lows has a measured move down 2.8% to 1,304, which coincides with the late November pivot at 1,308.
Nasdaq's Market Intelligence Desk (MID) Team includes:
Michael Sokoll, CFA is a Senior Managing Director on the Market Intelligence Desk (MID) at Nasdaq with over 25 years of equity market experience. In this role, he manages a team of professionals responsible for providing NASDAQ-listed companies with real-time trading analysis and objective market information.
Jeffrey LaRocque is a Director on the Market Intelligence Desk (MID) at Nasdaq, covering U.S. equities with over 10 years of experience having learned market structure while working on institutional trading desks and as a stock surveillance analyst. Jeff's diverse professional knowledge includes IPOs, Technical Analysis and Options Trading.
Steven Brown is a Managing Director on the Market Intelligence Desk (MID) at Nasdaq with over twenty years of experience in equities. With a focus on client retention he currently covers the Financial, Energy and Media sectors.
Christopher Dearborn is a Managing Director on the Market Intelligence Desk (MID) at Nasdaq. Chris has over two decades of equity market experience including floor and screen based trading, corporate access, IPOs and asset allocation. Chris is responsible for providing timely, accurate and objective market and trading-related information to Nasdaq-listed companies.
Annie O'Callaghan is Director on the Market Intelligence Desk (MID) at Nasdaq. Annie has worked for NASDAQ in a variety of roles including support of Nasdaq C-level management in client retention and customer service. Annie also served as a Sales Director in Nasdaq’s Transactions Services business. Prior to joining Nasdaq, Annie worked at AX Trading, managing accounts for its Alternative Trading System and served on Credit Suisse's trading desk as an Electronic & Algorithmic Sales Trading Analyst.
Brian Joyce, CMT has 16 years of trading desk experience. Prior to joining Nasdaq Brian executed equity orders and provided trading ideas to institutional clients. He also contributed technical analysis to a fundamental research offering. Brian focuses on helping Nasdaq’s Financial, Healthcare and Airline companies among others understand the trading in their stock. Brian is a Chartered Market Technician.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
