Quiet market until about 3PM today, then ……….
This market continues to put on a clown show on a daily basis. Frankly its as confusing as Father’s day in Appalachia. Technology trades horrifically. Yeah LNKD beat off a low bar (really low) after the close, but its still way way way overvalued and AMZN blasted the shorts with a big beat. But AMZN isn’t really tech anymore, its really more retail/consumer discretionary. Good for them though. Nice beat. The stock’s up big in the aftermarket.
I still don’t know what LNKD does.
AMZN up over 10% in aftermarket.
Commodities of all types though continue to be on fire. Gold, silver, miners, steel, energy, agricultural commodities etc.. All act so well.
Stocks stumbled late in the day, and the Dow ended down 1.2%, led lower by sharp declines in AAPL, CSCO and IBM. It was the Dow’s biggest one-day drop since the index hit its 2016 low on Feb. 11.
My Feel On This Market Right Now
First of all, you guys own a lot of other stocks than just the ones I give you. So speaking to that, I would caution everyone to be very careful at this stage of this market cycle.
It’s OK to have a “buy & hold” strategy when the SPX is 900 or 1000, but please don’t have one up here. Pay attention to what you own and if you have big profits over the last month or so, PLEASE protect them with stops. Never let a profit become a loss.
Bull markets should be led by technology and banks. As you know technology is rolling over and although banks have had a decent little rally, they’ve stalled. We shouldn’t be led by gold and silver and miners, and we are.
Housing? Starting to crack hard. Is that a bullish sign for America? I think not. Ugly.
Semiconductors? I hate them here. Starting to crack too?????? Down almost 3% today.
Energy has been wonderful, but newsflash, it won’t go up forever, and when the profit takers arrive (and short sellers), that sector will drag down the rest of the market.
Today Carl Icahn announced that he has sold every single share of his AAPL position. I’m not an Icahn fan, I never revered him like many have. I think he has a lot of money and has caught a great bull market. Not that hard. The fact that he sold AAPL means nothing to me, probably a good shot that’s he s really wrong on that call anyway.
My point is that when he made the announcement the market rolled over. The market is delicate right now and any negative type of announcement sends us reeling. Icahn’s move shouldn’t matter in a strong market.
I am not saying we topped today, I am saying that we are long in the tooth again. Was today a shot across the bow? Maybe, maybe not, but you have to respect the notion that maybe it was.
Today I added two longs: ARLP and ATW. I also added BABY as a short.
See you in the morning.