Past week recap: A big down week, following a two week rally, which followed a big decline. This time the blame for widespread institutional selling was Fed comments again suggesting more rate hikes, followed by Trump’s surprise intention to impose import tariffs on steel and aluminum – which would raise prices in the U.S. and cause retaliatory tariffs by trade partners on U.S. exports, both of which would be expected to dampen sales and slow the U.S. economy. So, down-up-down goes the broad market – this choppy behavior making it very difficult for all investors to profit at the moment.
With our lists about evenly split between long and short positions, we are “treading water” in the near-term until an overwhelming sentiment emerges among institutions that lasts more than a few weeks.
Shorts once again were the source of profits after a week where longs were the gainers. Still there are always exceptions – last week saw some shorts rise (bad thing) and some longs still rise to new highs (good thing). For all the movement in prices, and there were some large moves, not many trades indicated this week.
Highlights: 2 new weekly highs in long positions. 7 stocks with double-digit long gains:
- EVTC +18%
- LPSN +22%
- FTK +33%
- BXC +69%
- LQDT +16%
- URBN +69%
- PES +12%
4 new weekly lows among short positions. 3 stocks with double-digit short gains:
- BZH +12%
- GLMD +46%
- HTZ +14%