As we’ll talk about this Market environment, we now sulk with disappointment after the Federal meeting that culminated Yesterday. As we reflect on what’s happening through the course of the trading day today, it was sort of a noisy day on Thu.
It was on wed, that we had seen things like a waterfall decline, the Federal meeting, and a lot of volatility but, on Thu, the markets sort of opened lower and then traded quite around current Levels that we were at close of Thu. On Thu, the S&P finished around 4060 and that’s down about three quarters of a percent from Wednesday’s Close.
The NASDAQ Composite was just below 12000, down about half a percent from Wednesday. The Mid Caps and Small Caps we saw pushing even further down. Due to the Mid Cap Index, the S&P 400 was down 1.7 percent.
Market Recap the only indicator the only chart on the green here in this top list of of Market indexes and measures that we track is the VIX. The VIX was above 20. This was contrary to the usual number of the VIX being relatively low that we have seen all the time. The fact that VIX was remaining below 20 means that, even though we’re spiking a little bit, it’s not that bad a hike on VIX number.
On Thu however, at the close of day, the VIX was back above 20. This tells that we are seeing a more volatile market tendency now as compared to the last 12 months. VIX though still trending low, however we’re starting to see some signs of elevated volatility perhaps due to the uncertainty that yesterday’s Federal meeting and due to all the earnings data.
Bond Yields – Stock Market Today, Thu
Interest Rates While we look into some of the other markets, we see interest rates overall moving a little bit lower on Thu. The 10-year Yield was down around 33.5. Long Term Yield actually pushed a little bit higher to 37.2, the short term end of the curve of course was still pretty high and this is more closely related to the Federal announcement of raising rates.
This week until now, we have seen the longer end of the curve more defined by market forces and we could see that interest rates on the long end were still relatively Low. That 10-year Yield which is mostly often tracked, was down and was about 33.5.
Currency – Stock Market Today, Thu
Dollar Index was up a bit but not too much.The UUP, which is a bullish dollar ETF was only up about 0.1 percent on Thu. We could see a lot of green in the Commodity markets, with a couple of exceptions.
Metals – Stock Market Today, Thu
Gold and Silver like usual could be seen in the Green. Considering Gold, it has already tested an all-time high of around 2000 an ounce and we can see that Gold is currently just above 190 which is up about 0.7 percent. Silver prices traded on the markets using the SLV Silver ETF was 2.2 percent higher.
Crypto – Stock Market Today, Thu
Crypto overall was mostly in the red, with particularly the most common ones that people tend to think of. Bitcoin was down about .6 percent, Ether was down about 1.6 percent.
S&P Large Cap and Small Cap – Stock Market Today, Thu
For the S&P 500 we see that the Large Cap are sort of in the testing resistance mode whereas Small Caps are nowhere near that.
Banking and Financial Services Stocks
We saw the Regional Banks ETF were gapping back lower again on Thursdays trading day. There’s no doubt that Regional Banks are struggling in the current ongoing banking and financial crisis. The Regional Banking ETF is certainly one of the indicators of this sluggish movement.
In the Banking system represented by the KRE, the KRE is really showing that we’re in a panic mode as we’re in a sort of a Waterfall Decline and this of course is comprised by stocks like Zions bancorp which was down by another 12 percent on Thu.
Other Observations and Stock Watch
Even the XLF or Financials sector which of course also has some of the larger Banks is not in a bullish phase. This sector comprises of stocks and a series of stocks and ETFs and industries which are way below and trending much lower. These stocks tell us that we are in a position of weakness and not in a position of Strength.
Peloton stock was down about 13 and a half percent on Thu. This is an earnings name and this week again the Gap lower for this stock could be a big surprise. Paramount is another stock that was down quite a bit on Thu by almost 30 percent, gapping lower and is now retesting the lows from the fourth quarter of last year. For AT&T stock, we saw weakness in this Mega Cap stock aswell as in the overall Communication Services sector and there is potentially further weakness to come.
