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Stocks Keep Climbing as Lower Rates Push Growth Names Higher
by David Russell | Jul 8, 2024
Large growth stocks are leading the market to new highs again as investors anticipate lower interest rates. The S&P 500 rose almost 2 percent in the holiday-shortened week between Friday, June 28, and Friday, July 5. The index closed above 5,500 for the first time...
Health Care Stocks Come to Life, Supported by FDA, Low Interest Rates
by David Russell | Jun 11, 2021
Health-care stocks have lagged the market for years, but now the sector is coming to life as the coronavirus pandemic winds down. The SPDR Health Care ETF (XLV) has outperformed the S&P 500 by 2.5 percentage points so far this week. That puts it on pace for its...
Options Traders Are Looking for This Satellite Radio Stock to Blast Off
by David Russell | Jun 8, 2021
Sirius XM has gone nowhere for years, but now bullish options trades are building as the satellite-radio company partners with TikTok. Call volume has climbed steadily in the last week, according to TradeStation data. Today's top contract is the September 8 call,...
Apple Could Be Squeezing Toward a Breakout With New Features Unveiled at WWDC
by David Russell | Jun 8, 2021
Apple has been a frustrating stock for most of the year, but now it may be squeezing toward another rally. The first pattern on today's chart is its super-tight Bollinger bandwidth, which yesterday was the narrowest since December 2019. That could suggest price is...
Money Shifts to Emerging Markets With Stocks Back Near Record Highs
by David Russell | Jun 7, 2021
Stocks inched higher again last week as investors focused on companies that will benefit from the global pandemic easing. The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent between Friday, May 28, and Friday, June 4. Buyers focused heavily on energy, which ripped almost 7 percent....
An Early Innovator Breaks New Ground Again. Can You Guess June’s Mystery Stock?
by David Russell | Jun 4, 2021
Innovation can be an essential element of success in the stock market. Now one of the earliest major disruptors could be breaking new ground again. This month’s mystery stock traces its origins to the early-20th century, when automobiles were expensive and hard to...
Technical Alert: Death Cross in Netflix
by David Russell | Jun 3, 2021
The economy is reopening. People are going back to work. It's great news for a lot of stocks, but Netflix isn't one of them. Today, the streaming-video giant's 50-day simple moving average (SMA) closed at $513.97, or $0.53 below its 200-day SMA. That "death cross" may...
Top Stocks for Options Trading
Technology & Communication
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Tech Stocks Just Had Their Worst Week In 7 Months as Inflation Scares Haunt the Market
by David Russell | Oct 4, 2021
Technology stocks just had their worst week since February as rising inflation makes investors worry about higher interest rates. The SPDR Technology ETF (XLK) and Nasdaq-100 both declined more than 3 percent between Friday, September 24, and Friday, October 1. That...
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Tech Falls as Earnings and Economic Data Disappoint
by David Russell | Jul 30, 2018
Technology stocks took a hit last week, but the broader market still managed a fourth straight gain. The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent between Friday, July 20, and Friday, July 27. That contrasted with the Nasdaq-100's decline of 0.7 percent. Sub-par earnings and...
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Suddenly Tech Is a Margin Story
by David Russell | Jul 27, 2018
Technology stocks are usually all about growth, but in the last few days costs have been the talk of the town more recently. Facebook (FB) is the big example, losing a record $119 billion of market value yesterday. Slower growth was part of the problem, but most...
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Caution Reigns in Chip Space: Options Recap
by David Russell | Jul 27, 2018
Options traders are bracing against a drop in chip makers as earnings season marches on. Here's a breakdown a large bearish spread in the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) yesterday: Roughly 22,000 September 100 puts were bought for $1.85. Roughly 22,000...
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Tech Mixed, Industrials Strong: Earnings This Week
by David Russell | Jul 26, 2018
It was the best of times and the worst of times. The saying was seldom truer than the past week's earnings reports. Starting with the bad news first, there's one word everyone needs know: Facebook (FB). The social-media giant slammed into a wall of rising costs and...