Courtesy of Blain.
Indexes topped off a very volatile quarter with a very quiet session. The S&P 500 fell 0.20% while the NASDAQ gained 0.01%. The NASDAQ had its worst first quarter since 2009 with a 2.75% quarterly decline. All three major averages recovered from an intra-quarter drop of more than 10%. The fact a sub 3% loss in a quarter is the worst first quarter action we’ve seen in 7 years shows how spoiled investors have become. Meanwhile the S&P 500 inched out a 0.8% gain. Chicago PMI rose to 53.6 in March from 47.6 in February; any reading over 50 signals expansion so this is a positive.
“This has been a tale of two quarters—the first half, investors feared an outright recession and global slowdown, but after six weeks, markets turned on a dime with the help from central banks, which continue to stay accommodative,” while economic data fundamentals suggested no recession, said Ryan Larson, head of equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management.
Obviously very little to add to yesterday’s comments on the indexes. So here are some longer term charts to review.
Oil has sort of stalled here but as long as $36 is held it should be ok.
Ten year yields are falling again as meh economic data combines with a growing belief the Fed sits on its hands for many months … yet again.
Morgan Stanley on Thursday raised its price target on IBM to $168 from $140 based on the perspective the firm is “beginning to show a path toward revenue monetization” in its Watson data analytics service.
Monsanto (MON) fell 3.7% after analysts at Bernstein cut their price target for the stock to $80 calling its reduced earnings forecasts “too optimistic”.
Fitbit (FIT) has been a massive disappointment as a stock since coming public but at least today was a nice session.
Fitbit climbed 13% after announcing that it has shipped more than 1 million of its new Fitbit Blaze devices and more than 1 million of its Fitbit Alta since availability began earlier this month. The Fitbit Blaze is a higher-end smartwatch designed to compete with the Apple Watch. Fitbit was also started at buy and given price target of $20 at Longbow Research.
