The NASDAQ Composite logged a strong day yesterday as it moved higher on much stronger volume, a constructive counter to the several days of distribution, churning and stalling we've seen over the past couple of weeks. The S&P 500 was up on lighter volume.
The strength in the markets on Thursday were related to a raft of strong earnings reports, many of which show marked improvement over the prior quarter's earnings reports. This bodes well for the general health of the market. Economic news was mixed with initial jobless claims higher than expected while durable goods orders were stronger than expected. Ex transportation, the durable goods number was below the consensus estimate.
Chinese social network Yy, Inc. (YY) put in another pocket pivot buy point. Earnings and sales are skyrocketing and institutional sponsorship has increased since the company went public. YY's industry group ranks #15.
We also saw a number of other stocks flashing pocket pivot buy points that looked good: Alkermes (ALKS), Priceline.com, Actavis (ACT), Ocwen Financial (OCN), and LinkedIn (LNKD) on its second attempt at making new all-time highs. Buyable gap-ups included TripAdvisor (TRIP), Visas (V), UnderArmour (UA), and Cabot Oil & Gas (COG). Facebook (FB) also acted well in a buyable gap-up type of move, but in general stocks that have not doubled first before such a BGU have a lower probability of working. It is possible, however, that FB could be an exception to this rule given its status as a big-stock social-networking leader. IF FB works, it could also provide another linchpin for this market as a big-stock leader.
Futures are down this morning as the S&P 500 continues to find resistance at the 1700 level but leading stocks appear to be holding together. Gilead Sciences (GILD) is set to gap-up at the open after announcing earnings and Tesla Motors (TSLA) is gapping up on an upgrade and $160 price target from Deutsche Bank.