WizzWatch Market Newsletter

 As we get closer to the end of the year with about 4 days left in trading, two out of three of the major indices ended the week advancing as major commodities ended the week with declines.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average, as well as the Nasdaq Composite Index closed to end the week trading higher as the Standard and Poor’s 500 closed to end the week declining along with the prices of gold, silver and light sweet crude oil.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average began the week trading at 30,159.00 and moved to a price low at 29,755.53 before ending the week trading slightly higher to the upside. The index is currently up 5.82% for the year. Out of all 30 stocks in the index 9 advanced as 21 declined to end the week.

The top percentage gainers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the week that passed were (GS) Goldman Sachs Group +4.80%, (JPM) J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. +4.05%, (AAPL) Apple, Inc. +2.54%, (MSFT) Microsoft Corp. +1.52%, and (NKE) Nike, Inc. +0.78% as Intel, Amgen, Chevron, Walgreens and Verizon lagged. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed to end the week trading at 30,199.87 up 20.82 or +0.07% on lighter than average weekly trading volume of 1.27 billion. The average weekly trading volume for the index is 1.91 billion.

Over at the Nasdaq there was a continued advance to the upside for the second consecutive week in a row. The Nasdaq has been moving higher to the upside for 6 of the pass 8 weeks after breaking above its August 11,695.63 price high.

There were 31 advancers in the Nasdaq 100 for the holiday-shortened week as 61 declined to moved higher. The top advancers in the index were (CHKP) Checkpoint Software +12.64%, (CDNS) Cadence Design Systems +5.26%, (IDXX) IDEXX Laboratories +4.05%, (SWKS) Skyworks Solutions +3.90%, and (WDAY) Workday +3.73% as Lululemon, Ctrip, Intel, American Airlines, and Western Digital declined.

As the week came to an end the Nasdaq closed to end the week trading at 12,804.73 +49.10 or +0.38% on heavier than average trading volume of 21.09 billion. The average weekly trading volume for the tech weighed index is 18.59 billion. The index is up 42.71% for the year. 

As for the Standard and Poor’s 500, the index came very close to ending the week advancing but declined to end the week trading lower. The index is 6.35 points below its prior weekly closing price. The slight pullback in the index may have been due to the addition of (TSLA) Tesla being added to the index. Tesla is currently 1.69% of the weight of all the companies in the S&P 500. As for now the  S&P is currently up 14.62% for the year.

The index began the week trading at 3,684.28 and moved to a price low at 3,636.48 before ending the week trading higher. Downside support for the S&P is currently at 3,627.23 with upside resistance at 3,726.70.

The top advancers in the S&P 500 for the week were (FTNT) Fortinet +9.80%, (ALB) Albemarle Corp. +8.84%, (ABMD) Abiomed +7.60%, (AIV) Apartment Investment and Management +7.10% as well as (FLIR) Flir Systems +6.68%. The laggards in the index for the week were Mosaic Co., Carmax, Apache Corp.,  eBay, Inc., and American Airlines Group, Inc.

The S&P 500 closed to end the week trading at 3,703.06 down 6.35 or -0.17% on lighter than average downside trading volume of 7.47 billion. The average weekly trading volume for the index is 12.33 billion.

As far as commodities are concerned, the oil index moved lower for the first time in many weeks. The index has been moving higher to the upside for 7 of the past 8 weeks. The oil index closed to end the week trading at $48.23 per barrel down $1.01 or 2.05% on lighter than average trading volume of 127.22 million. The average weekly trading volume for the index is 221.39 million. The oil index is down 21.01 percent for the year. 

As for the price of gold there was also a pullback as the index closed to end the week trading at $1,883.20 per ounce down $5.70 or -0.30% as silver ended the week trading at $25.91 down $0.12 or -0.48%. 

By Marlin Rolle