Though there was a bit of a fade in the final hours of the session, the major indices still finished Monday with positive performances. The market is coming off a strong week that registered gains of more than 2% as it finally began to look past worries that permeated through the three-month correction.
But there’s one index that has really been showing off of late.The Dow has now gained for an eighth straight session with today’s advance of 0.27% (or about 68 points) to 24,899.4. It all got started back on Thursday May 3rd, when the index snapped a four-session losing streak with a slight gain after a big intraday comeback. Today, the streak entered its third week. In that time, it has added almost 1000 points and turned green for the year.
Meanwhile, the NASDAQ rose 0.11% on Monday to 7411.3 and the S&P was up 0.09% to 2730.1. The Russell 2000 was down 0.40% to 1600.3. All of the indices had a strong morning but trailed off as the day progressed.
“The market kicked off the week on strong footing as the major market averages all gapped up at the onset of trading. Late into the afternoon, some weakness showed up, putting the major market averages under pressure,”said Dave Bartosiak, editor of Surprise Trader, Momentum Traderand Blockchain Innovators. “This week retailers will come into focus with earnings due out from Home Depot, Walmart, JC Penny and Macy’s.”
One of the market’s biggest worries of late are fears of a trade war with China. Those fears eased a bit today on an odd tweet from President Trump that mentioned working with President Xi to help out the beleaguered Chinese phone company ZTE. The tweet comes ahead of another round of trade talks between the two countries.
In the portfolios, Home Run Investoradded a pollution control company, while Counterstrikepicked up a specialty vehicles manufacturer that’s being impacted by high frequency traders (HFTs). Also, Black Box Traderswapped out four names. Learn about all these moves and more in the highlights section below:
Today's Portfolio Highlights:
Home Run Investor:Nobody wants to drink dirty water or breathe dirty air, so a pollution control company like Tetra Tech (TTEK) has a lot of potential for growth. Brian Bolan really appreciated its most recent quarterly report, which included positive surprises for earnings and revenue along with a raised guidance for this quarter and this year. Rising earnings estimates made TTEK a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The editor thought this name would be a good addition to further his goal of making the portfolio more aggressive. Read the full write-up for a lot more on TTEK, and be ready for another buy on Wednesday.
Counterstrike:Shares of Oshkosh (OSK) have slipped below their 50-day and 200-day moving averages despite a late April quarterly report that included a 42% earnings surprise. This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) manufacturer of market access equipment, specialty vehicles and truck bodies has now beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 10 straight quarters. Jeremy thinks the HFTs are messing with the stock, so he decided to take a small, half position of 5% in OSK on Monday. He'll look to add if shares surpass $77.50, which would break its 50-day. Read the full write-up for a lot more.
Black Box Trader:The portfolio sold four names as part of this week’s adjustment and three of them brought profits. The stocks that left the service today included: