Retail continued its walk into the wood chipper after hours as Nordstrom reported a horrible number and guided lower. This comes on the heels of horrible numbers yesterday from other retailers.
Evidently those low oil prices are doing nada to get you out to the mall to buy something. Consumers aren’t spending and are holding their money close to the vest. Tomorrow, wwe get reports on retail sales and consumer confidence. It should be interesting.
Oil closed flattish today and XLE & OIH were also essentially flat. The dollar was up slightly.
There is always something to worry about, and right now its retail. I think we can see a retest of the February lows for this sector.
Of the commodity “type” sectors that have all had good runs, XME (metals & mining) have been performing the worst over the last few days. You will find a fair amount of steel stocks in this etf and they have been getting sold. See X.
We continue to be in a “show me” no real confidence market right now. Its seems to be being led by day traders and algorithms as the bulls wait for something good to hang their hats on again. Right now though, there aren’t too many positive catalysts out there.
The SPX literally tested its 50 day moving average within a few pennies and bounced. Let see where they take us tomorrow.
See you in the morning.