World markets are mixed this morning as 2014 gets off to a soft start. Europe is mildly green but Asia continues to get pressured along with some emerging markets. S&P futures are up 2-3 handles currently.
Yesterday profit takers came in as it was their first chance to sell without having to pay taxes this April. Overall there was no “major technical damage” as we held around the 8-day EMA at 1828ish giving us a new point of reference for 2014. A more important support area for the first “five-day test” that some keep renferring to is 1813ish (the prior high and 21-day EMA).
Even though markets were weak there were things to do as that could be the thesis this year – individual stock picking. It will be hard to match last year’s gains through the overall markets, so we will have to use our technical tool belt to spot divergences.
Banks look constructive.
Bank of America (BAC) blasted off through $15.75, giving it another action area, and closed above $16 – a nice start to 2014.
Citigroup (C) could get a bit frisky with a close above $52.50ish, then the real level is $53.30ish.
Lots of solars took off led by Canadian Solar (CSIQ). Some other “Day #1” type action in Solar City (SCTY), Yingli (YGE), First Solar (FSLR) and some others.
3-D stocks also acted better then some others yesterday lead by 3-D Systems (DDD) & Stratasys (SSYS). Some lower lever names in that group also acted well like ExOne (XONE), Voxeljet (VJET), Organovo (ONVO), and Camtek (CAMT).
High beta tech was mixed but held upper levels.
The real action might start next week as a lot of the big players come back from vacation.
Disclosure: Marc Sperling is long CAMT, SUNE, FB, JKS, GRPN, BAC, ZNGA, DRYS, ETRM, NVAX, DSX, VJET, YELP, ANR, MCP, TRLA, WWE, YY, ZNGA calls, DRYS calls, GRPN calls, ETRM calls, INTC calls, F calls, FB calls, EBAY calls, LNKD calls, FSLR calls, YELP calls, SCTY calls, REGN calls, Z calls, AAPL calls, PXD calls, CMG calls, LNKD calls.
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