Friday, July 31, 2026

PCE Prices … GDP … Jobless Claims … Momentum Trading DOW Stocks & ETFs … Stock Market Analysis

 
“Trade what you see; not what you think.” – The Old Fool, Richard McCranie, trader extraordinaire.
 
“Far more money has been lost by investors in preparing for corrections, or anticipating corrections, than has been lost in the corrections themselves.” - Peter Lynch, former manager of Fidelity’s Magellan® fund.
 
Never, never, never, believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on that strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The Statesman who yields to war fever . . . is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.” - Winston Churchill.
 
“There’s a lot of exuberance out there,” Dimon continued. “But it was in 1972, 1986, 2000, 2007. That doesn’t give me comfort.” – Jamie Dimon
 
“Rep. Jim Jordan wants the Justice Department to investigate former special counsel Jack Smith for lying to Congress. Those of us who served with Smith as federal prosecutors know this accusation is almost farcical. For those who do not know him personally, a close reading of the testimony at issue makes clear this is less a good-faith dispute over something Smith told the House Judiciary Committee than an effort to manufacture a crime from a truthful answer.” Story at…
Here’s what Jack Smith testified — and why it bothers Jim Jordan so much
 
GDP
“Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP is simply the total amount of spending in an economy. GDP, as currently measured, does not distinguish between “good” spending and “bad” spending. GDP does not distinguish between consumption spending and investment spending. GDP also does not distinguish whether spending is generated by existing wealth, by going into debt temporarily, or by going into debt permanently. In this world, every dollar spent on education or new means of production, is counted the same as every dollar spent on epic bachelor parties and video games.” – Michael Lebowitz, Real Investment Advice
 
ADVANCE GDP (CNBC)
Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services, increased just 1.5% for the April-through June period, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers adjusted for seasonality and inflation… While the GDP number was below expectations, the miss appeared to come from a decline in federal government spending and inventories. Other parts of the economy appeared strong.” Story at…
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/30/us-economy-slowed-to-1point5percent-growth-rate-in-q2-june-core-inflation-at-3point3percent.html
 
PCE PRICES (CNN)
“Overall inflation fell in June for the first time in six years. The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index – the gauge used by the Federal Reserve for its target inflation rate – dropped 0.1% from May, bringing the annual rate to 3.7% from 4.1%...” Story at…
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/30/economy/us-pce-inflation-consumer-spending-june
 
JOBLESS CLAIMS (AP News)
“U.S. filings for jobless aid in the week ending July 25 rose by 9,000 to 197,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week’s figure was revised up by 1,000 to 188,000 but remains the lowest in more than 50 years.” Story at…
https://apnews.com/article/unemployment-benefits-jobless-claims-layoffs-labor-99d765b2bbab7e278fb3eaed818d8319
 
QUICK MARKET SUMMARY
-Thursday the S&P 500 rose about 1.7% to 7438.
-VIX declined about 17% to 17.09.
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.651% (compared to about this time prior market day).
 
MY TRADING POSITIONS
QLD – Added 5/28/2026
 
NVDA – Added 12/1/2025 & 2/6/2026
“…the market appears to be pricing Nvidia as though its best growth opportunities are behind it. This is not the first time such a rerating has occurred with Nvidia. In earlier instances when Nvidia's forward P/E contracted amid consolidation or shifting sentiment, subsequent evidence of accelerating revenue and profitability triggered multiple expansions. This pattern is consistent: Once operational results confirm that the company's AI-driven growth is continuing, investors eventually reengage, and the valuation rerates higher… Patient investors who recognize that Nvidia's recent price action reflects investor caution rather than a fundamental deterioration of its thesis can position themselves to benefit from meaningful share price appreciation as the chip giant continues to execute.” – Motley Fool at…
Nvidia stock has only gained 5% so far in 2026. History is crystal clear on where the stock is headed next
 
XLK – Added 6/5/2026
 
CURRENT SUMMARY OF APPROXIMATELY 50 INDICATORS:
At the close today, of the 50-Indicators I track, 15 gave Bear-signs and 6 were Bullish. The rest are neutral. (It is normal to have a lot of neutral indicators since many of the indicators are top or bottom indicators that will signal only at extremes.)
 

TODAY’S COMMENT
The daily, bull-bear spread of 50-indicators declined from -8 to -9 (9 more Bear indicators than Bull indicators), a BEARISH indication. I consider +5 to -5 the neutral zone. The 10-dMA curve of the spread (purple on the chart above) that smooths daily fluctuations continued down, a BEARISH sign.
 
We expect that internals and indicators will improve when there is a big price move like Thursday.  That isn’t always the case. There wasn’t a big move in internals today (new-highs were anemic) and many indicators are built using moving averages, so it may take a few days for indicators to reflect improving market conditions. If indicators don’t improve in the next couple of days, we may have to conclude that this bounce may not last.
 
We did mention last Friday that conditions were improving. I wrote then: “Reviewing price action today (24 July) we note that volume declined, compared to yesterday’s low and there were improvements in market internals. These signals may be suggesting we’ll see higher prices next week.” So here we are and prices have jumped higher. That call will only be successful if the S&P 500 continues higher, breaks above its 50-dMA and doesn’t retreat below it. Based on price action, it appears to be likely that markets will continue to improve, but I need to see indicators improve too.
 
XLK (Technology Select Sector ETF) was up 5.5% Thursday and that is very encouraging. Our favorite chip-sector, bell weather, Micron Technology, was up 18% Thursday. Could the bottom finally be in for this value stock? Maybe, but there are still plenty of bear signs to worry about.
 
Thursday was a statistically significant up-day. That just means that the price-volume move exceeded my statistical parameters. Statistics show that a statistically-significant, up-day is followed by a down-day about 60% of the time. That said, futures look good as I write this suggesting another positive day Friday.
 
BOTTOM LINE
I am cautiously neutral and more hopeful now that a bottom may have been made Thursday. This bears repeating: If indicators don’t improve in the next couple of days, we may have to conclude that this bounce may not last.
 
ETF - MOMENTUM ANALYSIS:
TODAY’S RANKING OF 15 ETFs (Ranked Daily) ETF ranking follows:
 

The top ranked ETF receives 100%. The rest are then ranked based on their momentum relative to the leading ETF.
*For additional background on the ETF ranking system see NTSM Page at…
http://navigatethestockmarket.blogspot.com/p/exchange-traded-funds-etf-ranking.html
 
DOW STOCKS - TODAY’S MOMENTUM 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.
For more details, see NTSM Page at…
https://navigatethestockmarket.blogspot.com/p/a-system-for-trading-dow-30-stocks-my_8.html
 
THURSDAY MARKET INTERNALS (NYSE DATA)-
My basket of Market Internals remained HOLD. (My basket of Market Internals is a decent trend-following analysis that is most useful when it diverges from the Index.) 
 
                                                                         
My invested position is about 60% stocks, including stock mutual funds and ETFs. 50% invested in stocks is a normal, conservative position for a retiree. (80% is my max stock allocation when I am confident that markets will continue higher; 30% in stocks is my Bear market position.)
                                              
I trade about 15-20% of the total portfolio using the momentum-based analysis I provide here although I don’t trade as much as I used to. When I see bullish signs, I add a lot more stocks to the portfolio, usually by using an S&P 500 ETF as I did back in October 2022 and 2023.