A very quiet week, as prices of many stocks barely budged, implying an equal number of buyers and sellers. This suggests the usual end-of-year tug-of-war between cautious investors taking their profits (but incurring capital gains) and other more aggressive investors taking the risk of staying in through the end of the year (to defer capital gains into 2018) and maybe earn a bit more gain in the meantime.
Thus another mixed week for our stocks – some long positions continued rising but tech-related stocks in particular were among those declining on profit-taking. Seems to be more downside potential than upside for most stocks at this point. Again, most trades signaled this week are long-to-short reversals.
A Fed rate hike this month and a unified tax reform bill are already reflected in stock prices, so any large changes in prices the remainder of the year – either up or down – would likely be triggered by other unexpected geo-political developments, internationally or domestically.
Highlights: 5 new weekly highs in long positions. 7 stocks with double-digit long gains:
FIVN +11% CECO +28% BZH +58%
PIR +18% NCI +20% LPSN +58%
URBN +53%
Locking on long gain of +18% in HUN (24 weeks).
1 new weekly low among short positions. 4 stocks with double-digit short gains:
EVH +21% CECE +45%
EVTC +22%
TRUE +23%