Wednesday Recap: A Look Inside the market

The Fed day morning began with futures pointing toward a modestly higher open with improving sentiment regarding the prospects of a global recovery. The President's State of the Union address was credited with helping improve the mood based on the prospects of reduced corporate income taxes and a pledge to freeze domestic spending.

The session began with a small gap higher and momentum continued to build throughout the early morning as the high of the day was put on the chart at 10:46am. The mid day part of the session was mostly a stall as traders awaited the FOMC announcement. When the FOMC statement came out the SPX traded within a five point range after the announcement. It was a muted response, we usually see ten point moves or more. Volume also remained quite low.

For the SPX Index there were 304 components advancing and 177 components declining. On the NYSE 3,148 issues were traded with 2,119 advancing issues and 928 retreating issues, a ratio of 2.28 to one advancing. There were 241 new highs and 11 new lows. The five day moving average of New Highs is 188 while the five day moving average of New Lows is 17 and the ten day moving average of Net Advancing is 215. The Net Advancing data indicates a bullish trend.
 
Advancing volume was higher at a ratio of 1.58 to one. The closing TRIN was 1.45 and the final tick was 334. The five day average of TRIN is 1.21 and the ten day average of TRIN is 1.24. The NYSE Composite Index gained 0.64% today while the SPX gained 0.42%.
 
For the NYSE, relative to the previous 30 session average, volume was 20.06% 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, 18 sessions ended on a positive tick, 6 of last 10. For the SPX, the day's volume was 103.8% of the average daily volume for the last year. Volume was 96.9% of the last 10 day average and 95.4% of the previous day’s volume.
 
It gets tiresome writing much the same each night; we’re sorry. But the ratio of advancing stocks was weak compared to the advancing volume today. New Highs was also weak for a time that new 52 week highs are being made by the indices. 17 New Lows was also a bit high for the New Lows today. But nothing matters because Mr. Bernanke says inflation is not a problem and that a rising stock market will create confidence and promotes hiring, so all is well as long as the propped up market keeps rising.
 
Total tick for the day was 178,000 and the average tick for the day was 115. There were 90 ticks greater than 600 and 22 ticks more extreme than -600. There were 2 ticks greater than 1000 and no ticks more extreme than -1000. The tick action suggests institutional accumulation.
 
Intraday volume clearly spiked on the down moves today. Looking at the Nightly Breadth Indicators suggests that we have seen "the pullback" and are bouncing. Pullback? Really?!?




 
Sectors Performance: 
 
Sectors stronger than the SPX for Wednesday:
- Basic Materials -- Outperformed the SPX by +163%.
- Energy -- Outperformed the SPX by +203%.
- Industrials -- Outperformed the SPX by +17%.
- Technology -- Outperformed the SPX by +15%.
 
Sectors weaker than the SPX for Wednesday:
- Financials -- Underperformed the SPX by -42%.
- Consumer Staples -- Underperformed the SPX by -68%.
- Utilities -- Underperformed the SPX by -80%.
- Health Care -- Underperformed the SPX by -55%.
- Consumer Discretionary -- Underperformed the SPX by -27%.