Halfway through the year the major indexes are about where they were in mid-April (mid-Feb for the Dow Industrials) – not much movement since then, just range-bound choppiness. That was apparent again last week as the down-up-down weekly pattern continued. Seeing many recently rising stocks beginning to fall and recently falling stocks beginning to rise – all of which during a week without any significant news or events – possibly suggesting “sector rotation” as institutional investors lock in gains in profitable sectors like tech and re-allocate their capital to “value” buys in recently beaten-down sector stocks like oils and retail.
Seeing this same phenomenon among our stocks – many long positions slumping again and many short positions suddenly rising – not a productive week. Many existing gains in both directions diminished, some longs reduced to losses and total new weekly highs/lows way down. At least we’re locking in some good gains this weekend and a few stocks (NEFF and TRUE) are bucking the trend with profitable moves.
Abbreviated week ahead with the U.S. stock market closing early Monday at noon (CDT) and closed Tuesday for the Independence Day holiday.
Highlights: 6 new weekly highs in long positions. 5 stocks with double-digit long gains:
TRUE +32% FIVN +45% FRPT +50% NEFF +80%
LPSN +56%
Locking in long gain of +33% in EVH (24 wks).
No new weekly lows among short positions. 2 stocks with double-digit short gains:
FTK +24%
PIR +20%
Locking in short gains of +35% in NGL (11 wks) and +14% in URBN (7 wks).