AAPL Keeps the NASDAQ Afloat as the Market Aways Earnings Season

Coming off a holiday week stocks ended slightly in the red with volume coming in higher across the board. The Dow Jones industrial average along with the NYSE composite both notched distribution days, but the NASDAQ and S&P 500 skirted distribution. AAPL was certainly a star of the session despite volume coming in lower for the stock. Today’s action comes as no surprise to us as many market participants were coming back from vacation. The market clearly is waiting on earnings and first up to bat is Alcoa. We are still in a weak buy signal and we’ll continue to act accordingly until the market tells us otherwise. It is nice not having the troubles in Europe dominate the talk on the air waves. Well, there was some talk, but not the pounding on the table many have been doing nowadays. Attention is now being drawn towards earning season and it will be interesting to see how the market reacts to the many companies reporting on their earnings. NKE and F are two examples of where the global slowdown is clearly hurting them on the top and bottom lines. We’ll sit back and where we need to take action we will and will not be guessing on the direction of stocks will take prior to earnings. We follow trends and certainly do not guess where they may happen next. Alcoa reported better than expected earnings and revenues after the market close. It reaffirmed its guidance for demand, but has yet to express any global growth. The stock was up more than a percent after releasing earnings, but now is hardly above where it closed. AA is not typically a name we’d like to get after since it isn’t a growth stock, but from an economic stand point it is a barometer. The lack of oomph in the after-hours session is quite puzzling and while we aren’t going to act upon it we can certainly ascertain something isn’t quite right. Earnings season has officially begun and let the games begin! A few leaders held their ground while another was unable to hold a key moving average. Both V and MA traded down to their 50 day moving average. Finding support, both stocks were able to hang above their respective 50 day moving average. On the other hand, LNKD was unable to hold its 50 day average. While volume was not above the average volume, it was the most volume seen by the stock since the day the Russell indexes rebalanced. The stock has been climbing on tepid volume and today’s action doesn’t bode well for the stock going forward. Remember to know where you are going to sell out of a position! Cutting your losses is your number one priority. Profits take care of themselves, but losses never do.