Equities Edge Higher On Positive Retail Sales

Ulli Market Commentary Contact

Thur pic

[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com]

1. Moving the Markets

The S&P shot out of the gates early on and, while the index was not able to hang on to the gains, it managed to eke out 4 points for the day. All major indexes closed on the plus side.

Providing momentum were improved retails sales (+1.2% in May), which supports the theme that the economy is actually strengthening which, all of a sudden, appears to be a positive for the stock market.

The early momentum faded as the “Greek story” reversed with the IMF pulling out of debt negotiations for the time being. We meandered the rest of the day but ended up above the unchanged line.

9 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight followed suit in this mainly sideways trending session. Healthcare (XLV) was leader with +0.68%, while Consumer Staples (XLP) slipped a scant -0.04%.

2. ETFs in the Spotlight

In case you missed the announcement and description of this section, you can read it here again.

It features 10 broadly diversified ETFs from my HighVolume list as posted every Monday. Furthermore, they are screened for the lowest MaxDD% number meaning they have been showing better resistance to temporary sell offs than all others over the past year.

Here are the 10 candidates:

MaxDD

The above table simply demonstrates the magnitude with which some of the ETFs are fluctuating in regards to their positions above or below their respective individual trend lines (%M/A). A break below, represented by a negative number, shows weakness, while a break above, represented by a positive percentage, shows strength.

For hundreds of ETF/Mutual fund choices, be sure to reference Thursday’s StatSheet.

Year to date, here’s how the above candidates have fared so far:

YTD

Again, the first table above shows the position of the various ETFs in relation to their respective long term trend lines (%M/A), while the second one tracks their trailing sell stops in the “Off High” column. The “Action” column will signal a “Sell” once the -7.5% point has been taken out in the “Off High” column.

3. Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs)

Our Trend Tracking Indexes (TTIs) inched a little higher and are positioned above their respective trend lines as follows:

Domestic TTI: +2.04% (last close +1.85%)—Buy signal effective 10/22/2014

International TTI: +3.99% (last close +3.85%)—Buy signal effective 2/13/2015

Disclosure: I am obliged to inform you that I, as well as advisory clients of mine, own some of these listed ETFs. Furthermore, they do not represent a specific investment recommendation for you, they merely show which ETFs from the universe I track are falling within the guidelines specified.

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