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Apologies for the delay in this week’s VFTT… So far this year, the overall market has traded with a significant amount of resiliency. Despite ongoing uncertainty from Europe, weak manufacturing data from China, and growth concerns in India, equity prices have continued to advance. This is a welcome shift from last year’s environment of constant shifting [...] Editor’s Note: Today’s article is penned by Nathan O. – our trend following expert. This week, we launched the Global Trend Capture service which offers trading signals based on Nathan’s proprietary trend following system. The steel sector is an area that is improving both fundamentally and technically – so we asked Nathan to share any [...] Welcome to an abbreviated week of trading (in the US anyway)… Equity markets are following through on last week’s breakout, and the overall sentiment is shifting into more positive territory. Expectations for an economic rebound are still relatively tame, but investors are more willing to put capital on the line and institutional managers fear missing [...] Equities held up well in the first trading week of the year. This is particularly noteworthy, considering the euro broke down to a new low with sentiment for Europe’s debt situation remaining very low. On Friday, we were able to take half profits on our euro short (documented real-time via the Mercenary Live Feed) – [...] This week we received monthly sales figures from a number of key outlets and the results were very interesting… The overall level of holiday sales were below 2010 levels but more importantly, there were significant differences between the types of retailers that did well or fell behind. Last week we laid out five themes for [...] Three… Two… One… Happy New Year!!! The confetti has barely been cleaned up from Times Square and already traders are throwing their own ticker-tape party. S&P futures are indicating a sharply higher open as international markets embrace the optimism that comes along with a new year of trading and a clean slate in terms of [...] Heading into a new year of trading, markets are in a period of significant uncertainty. To generate profits this year, traders will have to adapt to change quickly, and make decisions based on imperfect information. Across the globe, many important variables are in flux. Economically, we continue to deal with seemingly insurmountable sovereign debt issues [...] Welcome to the lightest trading week of the year… Not only is this week pared back to only 4 sessions, barring any huge event in Europe, each day should feature anemic volume making it difficult for the heavy hitters to move any material amount of exposure. The light holiday trading has a natural tendency to [...] It’s the week before Christmas and I don’t know about you, but I’ve still got a number of items to check off my shopping list (not to mention a basement full of things that need to be “assembled” before the big day). Throw in a few family gatherings, drinks with a couple of friends, and [...] “Ugg” – That’s the sound of Deckers investors checking their account balance today… The stock is down 8% in early morning trading after a downgrade by Sterne Agee. The boutique research firm noted that its channel checks indicate a weak environment for Deckers Outdoor (DECK) UGG boots. According to the report, individual retailers are seeing [...] Buckle up for a wild ride… Today, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) dropped nearly 5% as traders reacted to disappointing November retail sales figures. For the month, retail sales rose 0.2% – short of the 0.6% forecasts. The weakness was particularly attributed to falling demand for autos, apparel, and electronics… Although today’s data wasn’t particularly encouraging, the [...] Welcome to a new week of trading… The last full week of trading before holiday schedules begin to cut into market hours and liquidity… Once again, we find ourselves at a critical juncture with the major indices testing overhead resistance, and the drama in Europe adding plenty of volatility. The headline nature of these markets [...] Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers (TOL) announced fiscal fourth quarter earnings this morning – offering a positive perspective for the home construction industry… For the fourth quarter (ending October 31), the company reported earnings of 9 cents per share, beating analyst expectations of 5 cents. Revenue was up 6.3%, hitting $427.8 million – also above the [...] The bullish rebound continued last week – thanks in no small part to a coordinated effort by global central banks to reassure investors and traders that they are willing and able to provide liquidity and access to capital. Speculative instincts were in full swing as indicated by a 10.3% increase in the Russell 2000 small [...] Last week, the market selloff accelerated as support levels were broken and the October breakout was effectively put to rest. Even though the week was shortened in the US by the Thanksgiving holiday, the major indices still managed to drop 5% of their value as traders embraced a “risk-off” perspective again. As we prepare to [...] |
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