FIG, BNI, NFLX

FIG, BNI, NFLX are all looking good and showing strength after the consumer confidence number turned things around. You should've already bought BNI on the mean reversion trade. FIG and NFLX are just busting out. Buy them on any dips as they are likely to trend higher.

Midday Update

The market has fallen off strongly with the financials leading the way. LO continues to hold strong but there is no upside to the trade right now. BNI has come back and looks decent based on a short term mean reversion trade and a relative strength basis. Otherwise, nothing seems to be able to push to new highs at the overall tone is negative. Oil's still weak, but I'm not touching it short or long yet.

Financials Fading

The XLF came up from around a percent down to slightly up before hitting a top around 21.10. They have since faded and put the market in a similar tone to Friday's. Everyone seems to be waiting as the market moves sideways and there is a lot of sectors moving in opposite directions. As far as single names--ESLR has held up pretty well after popping strong on the open, OSTK's looking weak and the selloff could pick up steam, MA's OK but it definately has a shot at fading later in the day, and LO did its standard drop and rally move.

Slow, Choppy Friday

The market was painfully slow today. I felt like it was just plain out flat lining after 12. There was a couple good entry points but mainly but everything felt pretty range bound in general as financials stayed weak causing the broad market to stagnate. LO worked out as it had some big sweeping rallies to past break even on the day before closing a bit lower. ESLR had a good entry point at 8.75 as it trended up on its 20 minute moving average. It eventually got up to 8.84 before stalling out and coming off hard. The XLF had a nice retest of 20.61 and bounced strongly off the level to get up to a close at 20.87.

I'm not sure you can read a ton into today's action. It never went anywhere. Highs were sold, lows were bought. That may have been caution before the weekend. It could be interpreted as broad market strength against financials that were down most of the day. It could be interpreted as a negative that the market didn't react more positively to the oil drop and strong durable goods number. I'm leaning to the latter but I'm going to wait until next week to see what happens before making any bets on it.

Oil and natural gas are still acting terrible. The trend is down until it proves otherwise.

BNI - 3 days down buy on the next day open could be a decent trade. It's now down 2 in a row.
CRM - At the 200 sma might be a good entry point
OSTK - Showed first signs of weakness after rallying hard off a capitulation low, keep an eye as a short
MA - It's holding up and reporting earnings this week. It could continue to show strength leading into earnings.
ESLR - It's still worth watching for good entries in anticipation of the big gap up.

Mixed Start

BNI was ripe to sell at the open. The stock has lagged behind its peer group and if earnings and a decent open in the broad market can't propel it higher, then I don't know what will. It has since come off strongly. GOOG is holding solid here and showing further relative strength. I'd buy it for a trade on the day. Two days relative strength makes me think twice about the two days of weakness it had after earnings. ZMH is stalling out as is OSIP and OSTK. Pharma (the PPH) was solid on the open and is holding steady but not moving too hard to the upside.

Financials are fluctuating back and forth from slightly up to about a percent down which is a negative in my opinion. That action seems to be holding the market back from really turning up the heat. If they turn strongly positive and can hold (which has not been the case as of yet) then I might say get long for a trade. There was a good entry in the financials around 21 to 21.40 after the XLF's downtrend broke. The market has since faded a bit.

I'm looking at ESLR. That stock gaps up on news and then not too long after gaps right back down. Well, now its a couple days after gapping down and it looks to be slowing its decline. I think it's a pretty good risk reward setup-10% or so upside and stop out not too below. I'd wait on good entries, it can be a good trading vehicle as well.

Lastly, LO is always a decent bet when it's down 2% on the day which it is now. The 2.5% down has been like a floor on most days and it always seems to come back to life later on. I'd watch it close and take a good look at entering into that on the long side.

End of the Day Slide

Stocks slid at the end of the day a move reminiscent of action before the recent rally. Financials got crushed and oil spiked as well. I was thinking mid-day that maybe this was going to be a shallow dip, but financials never really could get above resistance and they were completely sapped of strength. I'm still leaning towards a flat to down day tomorrow then we'll have to see if the drop gets bought. There's a lot of uncertainty out there and I don't think anyone's gonna rush all in tomorrow morning.

Disappointingly GOOG which was actually quite strong in the morning and presented a good long side trade for a percent or so just fell off a cliff in the last hour. It was ugly and I think it may be a good stock to track tomorrow as the weakness could persist. BNI was strong at the beginning too. It just wouldn't give up for a while there and it too presented a good trading opportunity for a percent or so. Finally though it gave up at the end. However, it did have pretty strong earnings after the bell. So, it should be up tomorrow. If it gaps up and you're holding it, I'd definitely look to sell some on the open.

A lot still boils down to what oil will do. I'm not sure there's too much of a catalyst out there that will get it going again. Iran seems mostly priced in, but demand destruction is getting in there too. Yesterday was a good day to be an aggressive short because the action was terrible. Today and likely in the near future-I think it'll be choppy and probably flat overall.

Mid-Day Update

The market is down with financials leading the way. I've been impressed by the strength of ZMH, OSIP, OSTK and DV today. DV, a stock I recommended very recently, just spiked big on the open (which was a selling opportunity) and has come off a bit. It's still holding up very well in the face of a down market. However, now that it is up 3 days in a row, I'd look to take gains and wait for a better opportunity to get in again. ZMH has just been bid up relentlessly after gapping down off of its earnings report. The action is so strong that you can't wait on a pullback almost; any downtick is a pullback! Similar action occurred when ZMH reported last. It got hit and rallied back sharply for 3 days after the initial drop before the move stalled out. Based on today's strong action, I could definitely see this move continuing. I'd buy here. If it does not maintain its strength, cut it. OSIP has been trending up pretty strongly today. I'd buy that one on intraday pullbacks as well. Longer term, it's in an uptrend, but may correct soon. OSTK's action is good and I like the daily chart for the most part. It took a big hit but is rallying back towards its 200 sma. I'd suspect that it would find that average before turning back down again.

FIG is showing some weakness. As I mentioned before FIG was the annointed stock over the past few days as financials rallied. Nothing could keep it down! The dips were shallow and all of them were bought up. But now that financials are dipping, all of those buyers have turned into sellers and it can't seem to rally at all. I'd bet that the action continues for more than just today. There has been a ton of buyers come in and a pullback like his will put a little scare into them, so much so that they probably won't dip into the market until at least 2 days down.

Oil (as judged by the USO) still feels weak to me. It's come down a lot, but it just doesn't seem to be responding as well as it was when it was higher. Overall, I think it's just better to keep trades intraday in commodities right now because they are so volatile and the gaps in the morning can take you apart.