The Weekend Rip: The Calm Before the Tornado

/ Stocktwits

The weekend gives us all a minute to stop and process what the heck is going on out there. We can make it as complex or simple as we want. Let’s focus on the things that have mattered and that seem to matter now.

With equities, we’re paying close attention to small caps and financials on the way down. They’ve both been terrible since before the bear market. Last week, the Russell 2000 fell 7% and $XLF (financials ETF) fell 6.5% while the S&P 500 fell 2%.

The Russell is 5% from new lows, $XLF is 10% from new lows, while the S&P 500 is 12% from new lows. Two tells.

With the global economic slowdown, we’re watching oil and treasury yields. Oil bounced last week while rates moved lower towards all time lows. Lots of geopolitical warfare fog with oil so you know.

We’ll keep you apprised of the performance and patterns of these four (Russell, financials, treasury yields, and oil) all week here on the Rip.

The banks kick off earnings season Tuesday, April 15 and so this week will be the calm before the tornado. The price commentary and body language of the execs plus price reaction to the earnings will be more important than the numbers themselves.

Here’s the S&P 500 Weekly Chart and percentage changes for last week:

S&P 5002,488-2.08%
Nasdaq7,373-1.72%
Russell 20001,052-7.06%
Dow Jones21,052-2.70%
Weekly percent changes 

Stocktwits Sentiment Index

Here’s the updated Stocktwits Social Sentiment Index for the week ending April 3. Sentiment is nearing lows, a slight divergence with the price of the $SPY (S&P 500 ETF). Place your bets…

$XLF Top Holdings

Here’s a look at the top 4 holdings for financial ETF, $XLF.

$BRK.B Bershire Hathaway – 15.7%
$JPM JP Morgan Chase – 11.9%
$BAC Bank of America – 7.3%
$WFC Wells Fargo – 4.5%

Thankfully, for $XLF owners, the largest weighted names are buffering the damage to a degree.

Boeing Dead Cat Bounce

Check out this chart shared by TrendSpider.

$BA 109% dead cat bounce… epic.



Bill Gates Is the Man

Bill Gates is out there single-handedly fighting coronavirus. He’s rich and using it to do God’s work.

Check out this interview and his plans to build vaccine manufacturing facilities. And also check out his great blog, GatesNotes.

Sunday Links

Reflections From Death Valley via Snowpeak

What Did People Do Before Toilet Paper? Via National Geographic

The Huge Navy Hospital Ships in Los Angeles and New York have a Rich History via Popular Science

The JavaScript Framework That Puts Web Pages on a Diet via Wired

Stock Market Crash: Finding An Edge via Trend Spider

The Price of Wine is Dropping Fast via CNN

Solid Big Pic Stock Market Analysis via Adam Koos

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The Week Ahead

And now a brief and well-organized look ahead at the trading week beginning Monday, April 6, 2020:

Economic Calendar:

4/8 EIA Crude Oil Inventories  (10:30 AM EST)

4/9 March Producer Price Index (8:30 AM EST)

4/9 Initial Unemployment Claims (8:30 AM EST)

Here’s the full Economic Calendar provided by Briefing. 

Earnings Ahead:

Here’s Earnings Whispers’ great visual.

Be sure to know when your stocks are reporting. Here’s the full earnings calendar.