15 May 2013 AMC

15 May 2013 AMC

Market Summary 

Market Internals

Leaders and Laggards

Technical Updates

Briefing's Commentaries 

Stock Market Update 16:15 ET Dow -80.41 at 15307.17, Nasdaq -38.82 at 3463.3, S&P -13.81 at 1655.35 :[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 settled lower by 0.8% after early strength turned into afternoon weakness.  Today's headline event came in the form of Ben Bernanke's testimony before the Joint Economic Committee. During his remarks, Chairman Bernanke said premature tightening of monetary policy could stall the pace of recovery. This followed weeks of conflicting remarks from FOMC members, which sparked speculation regarding possible changes to the Fed's policy course.  However, those voices were echoed again by the afternoon release of the FOMC minutes from the May 1 meeting. The minutes indicated that some members expressed their willingness to slow asset purchases as early as June, provided economic conditions warrant the change.  Equities spiked at the start of Chairman Bernanke's testimony, but sellers made their presence known this afternoon as the major averages slumped to session lows.  While the afternoon decline occurred around the release of FOMC minutes, the move was isolated to the stock market as the 10-yr yield held near its session high of 2.04%, and the Dollar Index maintained its gain of 0.4% near 84.25.  The utilities and telecom sectors led to the downside as traders continued to dump income-oriented names. Including today's 1.6% decline, the utilities sector is down 5.0% month-to-date.  Elsewhere, the energy space lost 1.2% as crude oil declined 2.1%. The energy component ended at $94.18 per barrel, and weighed on the growth-sensitive sector.  Another commodity-related group, materials, ended among the laggards as steelmakers underperformed. The Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 42.61, -0.59) settled lower by 1.4%.  Cyclical sectors felt the brunt of the afternoon weakness. Similarly, the Dow Jones Transportation Average was unable to escape the selling as the bellwether complex settled lower by 1.6%.  Only consumer staples and health care were able to settle near yesterday's closing levels. The health care space was supported, in part, by Pfizer (PFE 29.30, +0.52) after the company announced plans to split off its animal health business Zoetis (ZTS 33.55, +0.51).  The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX 14.08, +0.71) ended near its highest level of the day as today's selloff increased near-term volatility expectations.  Reviewing today's economic data, existing home sales improved modestly in April, but still fell short of the 5.00 million barrier. Sales increased to 4.97 million from an upwardly revised 4.94 million (from 4.92 million) in March. The Briefing.com consensus expected home sales to increase to 4.98 million.  Also of note, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index fell 9.8% after declining 7.3% in the prior week.  Tomorrow, weekly initial claims will be reported at 8:30 ET while the March FHFA Housing Price Index and April new home sales will be released at 9:00 ET and 10:00 ET, respectively. ..NYSE Adv/Dec 658/2381. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 634/1872.

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Jason's Commentaries


See... it's really that volatile isn't it... at the start of the last night, Ben Bernanke said that it's too early to tamper with QE and the market went all the way up. However, after his speech, the market selling day again. And at 2pm, market lost all it's gains and started selling off after FOMC minutes. FOMC minutes stated that there will not be changes to QE but there a 'number' of Fed members requesting to end QE. I suppose it's the increase of voices in the Fed to stop QE scared the shit out of ppl. From the internals, volume transacted were at 842m shares on the NYSE. Bulls ran out of steam and got killed by the bears. Most sectors ended in red except Healthcare. On the technical, It's a bearish engulfing... Later in the day, China released disappointing data and washed the whole Asia out. Nikkei ended in -7% and the other markets at -1%. Treasuries rallied last night as well. The Unemployment claims was better than expected and I suppose that should calm the market a little. But still I doubt the market is going to gain back all its losses. Futures are down 120 points 3 mins prior opening bell.

Market Call: DOWN

Date: 23 May 2013