Thursday Recap

Overnight news that S&P cut Japan's debt rating had little impact as traders were focused on sentiment data out of Europe and the economic data here in the U.S. Orders for long-lasting goods fell again in December. The Commerce Department reported that Durable Goods orders fell by -1.3% during the month, which was below the consensus expectations for an increase of +1.4%. When you strip out the volatile orders for transportation, orders rose by +2.4%, which was above the consensus for +0.8%. The November reading was +3.6%. The Labor Department reported that initial claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending January 22 rose by 51,000 to 544K. The week’s total was well above the consensus for a reading of 406K. Continuing Claims for unemployment for the week ending January 15 were above consensus at 3.991M vs. expectations for 3.828M and last week’s revised (higher) 3.897M.

The session began without a significant gap and zig-zagged higher to put the high of the morning on the chart at 10:34. Following a quick down move the SPX put the low of the day on the chart at 11:35 only six points lower. Most of the last four hours of the session traded within barely a two point range but as we have seen so often, buyers came in during the last hour and pushed the index to the high of the day near the close. This was a session that the Dow assaulted 12,000 and the SPX challenged 1300 but it was yet another sleepy creeper session that lulled you to sleep.





For the SPX Index there were 294 components advancing and 189 components declining. On the NYSE 3,134 issues were traded with 1,706 advancing issues and 1,332 retreating issues, a ratio of 1.28 to one advancing. There were 255 new highs and 9 new lows. The five day moving average of New Highs is 183 while the five day moving average of New Lows is 14 and the ten day moving average of Net Advancing is 121.
 
Advancing volume was higher at a ratio of 1.52 to one. The closing TRIN was 0.84 and the final tick was 662. The five day average of TRIN is 1.24 and the ten day average of TRIN is 1.27. The NYSE Composite Index gained 0.16% today while the SPX gained 0.22%.
 
For the NYSE, relative to the previous 30 session average, volume was 2.56% above the average. Of the last 15 sessions 12 sessions ended with volume greater than the previous rolling 30 day average volume. Of the last 30 sessions, 19 sessions ended on a positive tick, 6 of last 10. For the SPX, the day's volume was 94.7% of the average daily volume for the last year. Volume was 89.4% of the last 10 day average and 93.1% of the previous day’s volume.
 
Total tick for the day was 161,000 and the average tick for the day was 104. There were 53 ticks greater than 600 and 20 ticks more extreme than -600. There were no ticks greater than 1000 and no ticks more extreme than -1000. The tick action suggests institutional accumulation.
 
No clear intraday volume pattern is visible today because the market simply moved too sluggishly for any pattern to have a chance to emerge. Checking the Nightly Breadth Indicators is also unrevealing as the indicators are mixed as a result of the sluggish session. But once again, it is worth noticing that the New High/New Low ratios all dropped today.


Sectors Performance: 
 
Sectors stronger than the SPX for Thursday:
- Financials -- Outperformed the SPX by +72%.
- Industrials -- Outperformed the SPX by +15%.
- Technology -- Outperformed the SPX by +12%.
- Utilities -- Outperformed the SPX by +15%.
- Health Care -- Outperformed the SPX by +3%.
- Consumer Discretionary -- Outperformed the SPX by +59%.
 
Sectors weaker than the SPX for Thursday:
- Basic Materials -- Underperformed the SPX by -105%.
- Energy -- Underperformed the SPX by -71%.
- Consumer Staples -- Underperformed the SPX by -124%.