US STOCKS: Early Equities Roundup: Materials & IT Sector Shares Lagging
- Stocks retreated early Friday, SPX Eminis extending this week's to 5597.50, if not lows for the month of 5509.25 on March 13. By midmorning, the DJIA trades down 368.38 points (-0.88%) at 41584.85, S&P E-Minis down 40.25 points (-0.7%) at 5672, Nasdaq down 103 points (-0.6%) at 17588.37.
- Materials/industrials and Information Technology sectors underperformed in the first half. Weighing on the former: Nucor Corp -5.34%, Freeport-McMoRan -3.46%, Steel Dynamics Inc -2.95%, International Flavors & Fragrances -2.80% and Newmont Corp -2.47%.
- Tech shares underperformed in the first half with Micron Technology Inc -7.72% despite beating earnings while JP Morgan lowered it's price target to $135 from $145, Monolithic Power Systems Inc -5.01%, Applied Materials Inc -2.35%, Western Digital -2.11% and NVIDIA Corp -2.09%.
- Other notable laggers: FedEx Corp -10.73% after missing earnings, while NIKE Inc -7.39% and Lennar Corp -6.25% despite beating expectations.
- On the positive side, Communication Services and Consumer Staples sectors led gainers early Friday: AT&T Inc +0.86%, Netflix Inc +0.54% and Electronic Arts Inc +0.24% while Hershey gained 0.93%, Kroger +0.70% and J M Smucker +0.59%.
Want to read more?
Find more articles and bullets on these widgets:
Historical bullets
EQUITY TECHS: E-MINI S&P: (H5) Key Resistance Remains Exposed
- RES 4: 6205.38 0.764 proj of the Jan 13 - 24 - Feb 3 price swing
- RES 3: 6200.00 Round number resistance
- RES 2: 6178.75 High Dec 6 and key resistance
- RES 1: 6162.25 High Jan 24
- PRICE: 6132.00 @ 14:26 GMT Feb 19
- SUP 1: 6075.54 20-day EMA
- SUP 2: 6014.00/5935.50 Low Feb 10 / 3
- SUP 3: 5892.37 76.4% retracement of the Aug 5 - Dec 6 bull leg
- SUP 4: 5842.50 Low Jan 14
S&P E-Minis have faded off highs intraday, but remain firm and hold the bulk of the recent phase of strength. Attention remains on resistance at 6162.25, the Jan 24 high. Clearance of this level would expose the key resistance at 6178.75, the Dec 6 ‘24 high. A move above this hurdle would resume the primary uptrend. On the downside, initial key support has been defined at 6014.00, the Feb 10 low. A break would highlight a bearish development.
EQUITIES: US Cash opening calls
US Equities are set for a negative open, the pullback in futures was mostly Tech led as oppose to new fundamentals or Headlines.
European Estoxx has been trading in overbought territory, and was possibly due for some unwind, while the SPX reached a new all time record high Yesterday.
- Calls: SPX: 6,118.1 (-0.2%); DJIA: 44,429 (-0.3%/-128pts); NDX: 22,132.7 (-0.1%).
EURIBOR OPTIONS: Call fly buyer
ERM5 97.9375/98.0625/98.1875c fly, bought for 1.25 in 7k.
