The Closing Look

Stocks were mostly lower on Thursday as heavy selling showed up in the tech sector for the second straight day which dragged the market lower. The tech heavy Nasdaq 100 and many semiconductor stocks fell in heavy trade and broke down below key levels of support. In fact, the Nasdaq 100 has erased all of its post election gains. Financial stocks were strong for most of the day but the rest of the market was weak.Traders digested a slew of economic data. Weekly jobless claims came in at 268K, missing estimates for 253K. PMI manufacturing index came in at 54.1, beating estimates for 53.9. The ISM manufacturing index came in at 53.2, beating estimates for 52.3. Meanwhile, construction spending came in at 0.5%, missing estimates for 0.6%.

Gary’s Thoughts: Massive divergences  continue and just get wider. We are in hopes you listened to our technical analysis on the bearish areas as they just get worse. Bounces can happen at any time but the bear areas remain bear areas. On top of that, let’s keep an eye on what the semis did yesterday…giving back 3 weeks of “Trump gains” in one day. In the past couple years, we have seen the Sox get mauled only to hold and turn back up.

Other notes:

Oil stocks gave back most of the 2nd day of gains even though oil prices remained strong.

Financials…non stop piling on continues…some with bullish flag breaks to the upside.