Pre-market Look at the S&P 500 index

Negative news out of the Euro zone regarding ongoing talks held over the weekend on Greek sovereign debt problems has weighed on pre-market futures.  Pre-market indicators point to a weak opening for U.S. indices with the S&P 500 currently -12 points at the 1304 level. 

As the chart below points out, Thursday of last week was the first distribution day since the recent market low on December 19 of last year.  The market has traded in a tight, uptrending parallel channel for 6 weeks without displaying hardly any signs of weakness.  Should today's weakness be sustained throughout the day it will be interesting to see how the market reacts.  

Will we see 1 day of weakness and then bounce right back inside the channel, or will the selling last for several days?  The first area of interest for me is in the 1260 to 1280 area, with my focus on 1268.

Click on the chart to enlarge view:

Sub $10 Setups for Monday, January 30, 2012

The shippers, select names from oil and coal, and alternative energy groups (solar, uranium, etc.) continue to stand out in my screens.  Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Portfolio (PBW) shown below has many of the alternative energy names in their holdings.  

Also, check the long list of tickers posted on the blog back on Thursday of last week.  Some of them are still in viable setups; PWAV, ACW, SIGA, and others.


Special note: For those of you who like to play in this low priced arena, especially the stocks under $1.  Expect your favorite pet to run away this week, your home to be foreclosed in the next 30 days, and you'll likely lose all your money.  Don't venture here unless you understand and know how to handle the risks involved.


Here's a list of stocks trading at least 200K shares/day and priced under $10.  They're not listed in any particular order.  ALWAYS use stops to avoid big losses.

Click on charts to enlarge the view:

One Way Market - Awash in Liquidity

We have entered a vortex of excess world monetary liquidity where all equity prices rise in unison.  The world central bankers, now with the ECB on board, have decided that printing money and saturating the system is the only way to fix the sovereign debt problems, and help the crippled banks with bad assets on their balance sheets. And there's no point in fighting it; just go with the trend.

There are many stocks that continue to set up in tight, sideways consolidations, then break out to 8% to 15% gains, or more.  Those are the stocks to look for and buy, and they're all over the place.  Always take partial profits on those initial gains, then hold the rest of your position and raise your stops.

So until the market shows signs of weakness or a change of character, this will remain a market where you'll want to look primarily at the long side.  Price action in the major U.S. indices points to more gains ahead, at least for now.

Note:  ALWAYS use stops to limit your losses.  The best looking setup can reverse quickly and cause substantial losses.

From my previous posts where I displayed the charts, some stocks that continue to set up and point to further possible gains are: ACW, AEM, ALSK, ARAY, AVL, BAK, CERP, CETV, CPO, DXCM, EGHT, HSOL, HUN, GTIV,  KSWS, MEA, MTOR, OC, PHM, PRMW, PWAV, RENN, RLD,  SBLK, SIGA, SRI, STRI, SVNT, TTMI, TREX, TRX, VE, VVTV, WG, XRA

That's a long list, and those were pulled just from the stocks I've mentioned on this blog.  There are many more out there.

Lower Priced Setups for January 23, 2012

Stocks trading an average of 300K shares/day and under $10/share, which inherently carry added risk.  So trade accordingly with proper position sizes and tight stop, and expect to lose all your money.  

Check back later as I'm still going through my scans as I watch the NFL conference championship games, so there could be an additional post of setups either later tonight or tomorrow morning. 

Not listed in any particular order.  ALWAYS use a stop loss strategy to avoid big losses to your portfolio.

Click on charts to enlarge view:

Pre-Sunday Football Setups Trading Over $10

Here's a few setups from my scans this weekend for stocks over $10 with average trading volume over 300K shares.  Depending on how much football I watch this afternoon and evening I hope to get through some more charts.

There will be a separate post for the lower priced stocks under $10/share. These are not listed in any particular order.  ALWAYS use stops to limit potential losses.

Click on charts to enlarge:

Pre-market Notes for January 19, 2012

It appears there's no stopping this market.  Yesterday the market started with some mild weakness only to turn positive by mid-morning, then gain steam in the afternoon.  The S&P 500 closed up 1.1%, adding 14.37 points to close over the key 1300 level at 1308.04.  The Nasdaq Composite added  over 41 points, or 1.5% to close at 2769.71.

The S&P 500 has traded in steady parallel upward channel since the December 19 lows.  And while volume has not exceeded the 4 billion share mark on any trading day since that low, volume on up days continues to better downside volume.

The advance has left many bears and under-invested bulls puzzled as the market has had traded up in 9 of the 11 tradings days in 2012.  The Euro zone continues to struggle with sovereign debt troubles with Greece seemingly on the brink of default, and Iran has not moved away from its threat to close the Straits of Hormuz.  The wall of worry is there, and the market is making a steady climb.

Braskem (BAK), mentioned in January 13th setups, made a nice move yesterday adding $1.39 up 9.25%.  The specialty chemicals group has been strong so far this year with another highlighted setup from the group, Huntsman (HUN), rebounding 3.3% on higher than average volume.

The solar and uranium sectors were strong yesterday as well as previous setups Denison Mines (DENN), Uranerz (URZ), JA Solar (JASO), and the solar ETF,  Guggenheim Solar (TAN) all making nice moves.  I bought 2 new stocks yesterday, home builder Pulte Group (PHM) and Office Depot (ODP) both of which broke out of small, tight flag consolidations.

At 8:30 AM, weekly jobless claims were reported down 50K to 352,000.  That number announced by Rick Santelli on CNBC was followed by him saying that he doubts that any of the data points being released are actually true.  True or not, pre-market futures are pointing to another higher opening with the S&P 500 indicator pointing to +3 points.

Here a few stocks I'm watching for today.  ALWAYS use stops to limit potential losses.

Click on charts to enlarge:

Pre-market Setups & Notes for January 18, 2012

Pre-market futures point towards a flat to slightly negative opening for the S&P 500 with the indicator down roughly 1 point.  Yesterday the market gapped up strong at the opening and spent much of the day in the green until mid to late afternoon when weakness appeared.  The S&P 500 closed +4.58 points to close at 1293.67 after being up as high as 1303.

Yesterday's afternoon intraday weakness was really the first that the market has seen in 2012.  The latter half of 2011 had numerous days where the market would start strong and then fade late in the day.  That has not been the case so far this year, which is a good sign for possible further market strength.  

The market is pushing up against a crucial resistance zone in the 1300 area as shown in a chart I posted back on January 7,  now updated below.  Of note is the slightly lower high in the RSI.  I have a position in TZA to hedge my longs, and may add to it if the market shows more weakness later in the week. 

Here are a few stocks I'm watching today.  ALWAYS use stops to limit losses.

A few more names:  TMO, DXPE, LXU, OC, HDSN

Some New Setups for January 17, 2012

Here are a few setups that caught my attention over the weekend.  I'm still going through the charts tonight so I may have a few more to look at tomorrow morning.   

Not listed in any particular order.  ALWAYS use stops to avoid big losses to your portfolio.

Click on the charts to enlarge:

 Short setup:

                    

Pre-market Opening Setups for January 13, 2012

Pre-market futures point to a modestly negative opening as JP Morgan released earnings this morning that were within Wall Street expectations on the bottom line, but disappointed on revenues. 

The S&P 500 indicator is at -6.  Yesterday, the U.S. market spent much of the day moderately in the red until late in the day when the indices turned green.  The S&P 500 closed +3.02 to close at 1295.50 while the DJIA added 21 points to close at 12471.02.

Make sure to go through past daily setups as although some of them have not triggered yet, they remain valid and I do not make a habit of repeating the same setups day-to-day.

Here are a few setups for today.  ALWAYS use stops to prevent big losses.

Click on charts to enlarge: