The Bob Dole Market: Can’t Keep It Up

Tale of the Tape: 

Good evening everybody.

Today was the Bob Dole market. It just couldn’t keep it up. lol

It was all about follow through or the lack thereof. 

Remember that streak from mid-February to late March when we were unable to get two up days in a row? Every rally was met with selling. 

This went on for seven weeks but it felt like forever. The thing we were lacking was follow through.

Yesterday, we had a huge rally, +7% on the S&P 500. Then futures ramped overnight and we opened up 3% like a champ.

Ugh, but what a weak afternoon. No follow through, couldn’t keep it up.

The S&P 500 closed the day down 4 points, just a fraction, but still down 4% from the highs of the day. Bob Freaking Dole. 

Tech really gave it up, opening up almost 3% and closing down over 1%. As such, the Nasdaq was the worst out of the major indices closing down .33%.

Oil shanked it into the trees closing down 7%. What a freak.

S&P 5002,659-0.16%
Nasdaq7,887-0.33%
Russell 20001,139+0.03%
Dow Jones22,653-0.12%

Levels and Devils

The Friday the 13th close produced big levels across the indices. You might recall it was like a last hurrah. Stocks traded in a huge range and closed at the highs only to puke their guts out that next Monday. The major indices are engaging their respective March 13 closing levels right here and now.

In the charts below, the black lines are these closing prices from March 13th. 

Small-cap ETF, $IWM, continues to underperform.

The $SPY is less than .1% from the March 13 close.

The Qs are 2% above its March 13th close. 

The Dow opened today above the level and closed below it.

Stocktwits Sentiment Update

Stocktwits Social Sentiment inched higher today, the index is just below its March 30th high. Are we going to see a new high? Place your bets… 

No Trading.

“Starbucks of China” was halted today. That’s right, $LK didn’t trade a single share all day. At 9:15ET it was announced that Luckin Coffee was halted due to “pending news” but we’re still waiting for any word. 

Here’s what we do know:

4/2 – Shares of Luckin Coffee plummet 80% after investigation finds COO fabricated sales
4/6 – Luckin Stock Drops Further As Lenders Seek To Seize 76.4M Shares For Defaulted Loan

This is a shit show. It may never open again. Sino-Forest  never forget.

Airlines 🛫🛬

The airline stocks were flying high this morning. $JETS, the airline ETF, was up 15% at one point. Like the broader market, these names gave back their overnight gains. Here’s the 1-day chart of the most notable airliners. Delta opened +12.95% but couldn’t stay airborne.

Great Job, Jack 👏👏👏

Jack Dorsey is donating $1B of his Square equity to coronavirus relief. Here’s more from CNBC.

Well done, Jack. 

Links That Don’t Suck

Does Experience Matter During a Bear Market? via Ben Carlson

My Walking Barefoot in Four Feet of Snow Story via Mark Minervini

Whistler: Locked Down – Mark McMorris

Coronavirus Has Turned Children’s Workbooks Into Bestsellers
8 William Wordsworth Poems on his 250th Birthday

Booker T. Jones: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

How Coyotes Made their Homes in America’s Cities via The Verge