Major averages rose yesterday on mixed volume. The Russell 2000, semiconductors, and financials outperformed. Commodity stocks have shown potentially sustainable moves. It is important to note that such stocks often trade in wide bands, so buying on constructive weakness is often a better option. Stocks in this category for which reports were issued yesterday include coal-related Suncoke Energy (SXC), which had a pocket pivot two days ago, and fertilizer name Mosaic (MO), which had a pocket pivot four days ago but remains within buying range.
The world's oldest bank is in Italy and is being bailed out by the Italian government which will take a EUR 2 billion controlling stake in the lender. This is far from the only European zombie "too significant to fail" bank in trouble. Expect a continuation or acceleration of QE when the European Central Bank meets tomorrow. European stock markets are up on the news.
CME Fed Futures are pricing in a 94.9% chance of a rate hike when the Fed concludes its meeting a week from today. This may very well be just a token hike as any meaningful hikes in 2017 would upset the apple cart, potentially bursting the sovereign debt bubble. That said, history has shown that sometimes, all it takes is one or two rate hikes during a major bubble to induce a market crash or at least a major bear market. If the Fed hikes a week from today, that would be its second hike.
At some point, if the US stock markets were to head lower with any velocity or fall by at least 20%, the Federal Reserve would most likely step in and re-accelerate QE. To the detriment of the stock market, they do not wish to see several years of QE reversed.
Online real estate company Zillow (Z) had a pocket pivot off its 50-day moving average. Earnings and sales are both re-accelerating, group rank 45.