Pennsylvania Elections Expected to Rev up the Computers!

March 13, 2018.

The NASDAQ succeeded in getting in a breath of fresh air yesterday but when push came to shove trading really played more into buying a few select individual stocks, rather than trying to the ride the wave of the other major indexes. The Dow Jones struggled, closed in the red, the S&P 500, despite opening positively, closing the gap at the opening and trading in negative territory.  

In the event, you bought into the shares of the large tech stocks like AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL and TSLA, and the shares of chipmakers like MU or NVDA, you made it big. There were still a number of pockets of exceptional strength like that seen in CASA and SRPT, but at the end of the day, the pickings were slim.   

Though there was good price movement yesterday and the indexes didn’t record a significant change from a technical perspective, it’s impossible not to wonder what will be the next market catalyst. There are no significant earnings reports on the roster, but the special congressional election today in Pennsylvania is expected to be seen as a referendum on President Trump. It’s the type of event that will enable computerized algorithmic program to respond in today’s trading – so we should be on the ready!  

As of now, the atmosphere on Wall Street is one of complacence – and we’ve seen good price movement. It’s the type of price movement that instills fear in investors about the prospect of missing out; a lot of times, this leads a tense market to become even tenses. A significant newsworthy event is needed to prompt significant movement and the elections today seem like just the candidate, so expect things to possibly pick up after today.

Tuesday’s: Besides today’s Pennsylvania elections, the Consumer Price Index will grab headlines. Consumer inflation is expected to rise by 0.2% compared to January when inflation picked up by 0.5%. Inflation is a key ingredient for the Fed, which will be convening next week and is expected to hike interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, irrespective of inflation figures. At the same time, the market is tense about any figure “hotter” than the market consensus.   

It seems that the market is more sensitive to inflation figures than the employment figures that were released on Friday. It doesn’t matter how good the employment figures are, one thing is clear to all. The American economy is close to full employment. Inflation, though, is another beast. There are a lot of different opinions about the import of the latest economic figures. But as for inflation, either we are or are not on track to meet the Fed’s optimal rate.   

Besides the inflation figures at 8:30 N.Y. time, the NFIB small business optimism index will be released at 6:00. Earnings reports are expected from DKS, HDS, and DSW before opening.  

Tuesday’s Hot Stocks: DKS, DSW, SFIX, TLYS, MYGN  

Have a great trading day! 

Today’s Picks – Day Trading! 

New York Strategy Swing 

Today’s Picks – Swing “New-York Strategy” 

 No.1  – BOX

No.2 – TAL

 No.1 –TALNo.2 – BOX