Technology bears should have pounced Thursday following weak guidance from Salesforce.com (CRM), and the poor action of the Nasdaq 100 on the previous session, states Jon Markman, editor of Strategic Advantage.
Despite a weaker open, however, bears spent the rest of Thursday fearfully covering short positions. The Nasdaq 100 closed at 1,442, a gain of 1.3%. Bears have a big problem: All of their talking points are falling on deaf ears. The Federal Reserve is now widely expected during the summer to curtail its hawkish monetary policies. And terrible corporate profit reports are not sending shares into the abyss.
Although Salesforce shares did lose 4.7% on Thursday, the stock is still up 60.6% this year. Moreover, bulls bought the early dip to the rising 20-day moving average, and Salesforce shares finished at the best levels of the session.
It is going to be tough for bears to really push back and send the Nasdaq 1000 lower when buyers are waiting to scoop up big capitalization tech stocks into every meaningful decline. Meanwhile, the 20-day moving average for the index is also trending sharply higher as the rally accelerates.
That index, now at 13,765, is near-term support. Weakness to that point will surely draw new buyers. There is logical overhead resistance for the benchmark index at 15,265, the March 2022 high. Bears may be forced to concede that rally as they regroup.
The NDX Loop: Members were instructed to buy ProShares Ultra QQQ (QLD) on May second at $48.20. The 2x leveraged Nasdaq 100 index fund closed May 26 at $58.08.
Members sold half of the position for a 10.6% gain and half at $59.01, a 22.4% gain.
That was an awesome, awesome result for a hold of less than a month while there was so much jumpy, unpredictable, awkward stuff fired at investors from the worlds of politics, economics, and foreign policy.
Let’s try to do that again. I’m hunting a new low-risk entry. I will send instructions when ready.
Behind the Headlines: The Dow advanced 0.5% while the S&P 500 rose 1% and the Russell 2000 gained 0.8%. Technology led the gainers among sectors, while utilities and consumer staples slipped. Breadth favored advancers three-one. There were 221 new lows vs 159 new highs.
The House on Wednesday passed a bill to raise the US debt limit for two years and cap government spending, with a 314-117 vote and backing from more Democrats than Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer fast-tracked the bill through the Senate on Thursday, though demands by Republican senators for more defense funding threatened a delay.
In US economic news, manufacturing activity contracted in May amid declines in new orders as demand eased, according to two surveys released Thursday.
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