Past week recap: With Washington uncharacteristically quiet and Syrian bombing not escalating, institutional investors turned their attention to corporate earnings announcements – a welcome return to normalcy. For the first three days, earnings reports were very favorable and stocks rose. The final two days of the week earnings reports were disappointing and stocks immediately fell, resulting in a neutral week for the major indexes. More earnings reports next week will again set the direction for stock prices.
Many of our long positions rose early in the week and held gains over the final two days, resulting in many new weekly highs. Shorts were mixed. With most of our positions being so recent, large gains have yet to materialize.
Highlights: 10 new weekly highs in long positions. 8 stocks with double-digit long gains:
- EVH +11%
- PES +28%
- CRC +34%
- URBN +77%
- BXC +337%
- FMSA +14%
- EVTC +29%
- FTK +34%
No new weekly lows among short positions. No stocks with double-digit short gains at this time.
Stock list changes: Giving up on PIR ever recovering, after announcing large same-store sales decline and suspension of dividend – seems headed toward oblivion much as Toys R Us and Bon Ton stores.
Adding the following stock with recent compound trading return listed and trade indicated:
- SigmaTron Intl Inc (SGMA) [semiconductors], +187.0% in past 14 months