Thursday, July 12, 2018

Consumer Price Index (CPI) … Jobless Claims … Stock Market Analysis… ETF Trading … Dow 30 Ranking

CPI (Business Insider / AP)
“Consumer prices rose in June from a year earlier at the fastest pace in more than six years, lifted by more expensive gas, car insurance, and higher rent…Consumer prices rose 2.9% year-over-year in June…” Story at…
 
JOBLESS CLAIMS (MarketWatch)
“Initial jobless claims, a tracker of sorts for layoffs in the U.S., sank in the first week of July toward the lowest levels in almost 50 years. New claims fell by 18,000 to 214,000 in the seven days ended July 7.” Story at…
 
MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS         
-Thursday the S&P 500 was down about 0.9% to 2798.
-VIX dropped about 8% to 12.58. 
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.855%.
 
It’s been a busy day so I’ll be short.
 
My daily sum of 17 Indicators rose from 0 to +3 while the 10-day smoothed version that negates the daily fluctuations improved from -10 to -2. The Sum of Indicators is moving up. This is still bullish for the market.
 
I remain bullish.
 
MOMENTUM ANALYSIS:  
TODAY’S RANKING OF  15 ETFs (Ranked Daily)
The top ranked ETF receives 100%. The rest are then ranked based on their momentum relative to the leading ETF.  While momentum isn’t stock performance per se, momentum is closely related to stock performance. For example, over the 4-months from Oct thru mid-February 2016, the number 1 ranked Financials (XLF) outperformed the S&P 500 by nearly 20%. In 2017 Technology (XLK) was ranked in the top 3 Momentum Plays for 52% of all trading days in 2017 (if I counted correctly.) XLK was up 35% on the year while the S&P 500 was up 18%.
*For additional background on the ETF ranking system see NTSM Page at…
 
TODAY’S RANKING OF THE DOW 30 STOCKS (Ranked Daily)
The top ranked stock receives 100%. The rest are then ranked based on their momentum relative to the leading stock. (On 5 Apr 2018 I corrected a coding/graphing error that had consistently shown Nike incorrectly.)
*I rank the Dow 30 similarly to the ETF ranking system. For more details, see NTSM Page at…
I still have GE in my DOW 30 chart.  I’ll have to update my calculations to delete GE and add Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) since it has replaced GE in the DOW 30. WBA is best known for operating Walgreens drug stores.
 
THURSDAY MARKET INTERNALS (NYSE DATA)
Market Internals remained Neutral on the market.
Market Internals are a decent trend-following analysis of current market action but should not be used alone for short term trading. They are usually right, but they are often late.  They are most useful when they diverge from the Index.  In 2014, using these internals alone would have made a 9% return vs. 13% for the S&P 500 (in on Positive, out on Negative – no shorting). 
 
18 Apr 2018 I increased stock investments from 35% to 50% based on the Intermediate/Long-Term Indicator that turned positive on the 17th. (It has since turned Neutral.) For me, fully invested is a balanced 50% stock portfolio. 50% is my minimum unless I am in full defense mode.
 
On 10 May 2018 I added stock positions to increase Stock investments to 58% based on more evidence that the correction is over. This is high for me given that we are late in this cycle (and as a retiree), but it indicates my bullishness after the correction. I’ll sell these new positions quickly if the market turns down.
 
INTERMEDIATE / LONG-TERM INDICATOR
Intermediate/Long-Term Indicator: Thursday, the Volume indicator was positive; VIX, Price & Sentiment indicators were neutral. Overall this is a NEUTRAL indication.