Interesting today:

• The average daily market changes falls back under 1% (Bespoke) - "At one point in early December 2008, the S&P 500 had averaged a daily change of +/-4.02% over the prior 50 days, which is the highest level ever seen in the index's history."
• From StockCharts.com, "According to the Wall Street Journal, 'Caterpillar's 20% stock surge this month contributed nearly 34% of the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 415-point advance.' As a price weighted 'average' the highest priced issues in the Dow carry the most weight. This is also true for the Dow Transports and Dow Utilities."
• Facebook's S-1 reveals Zynga (ZNGA) supplies 12% of Facebook's revenue, shares soar (IBD)

Tomorrow we have the all important jobs report due out which will possibly maybe probably not have an effect on this market. full details.

No recap tomorrow as usual so have a FANTASTIC weekend and I will see you next week!

Original post: February 2nd, 2012 Market Recap with look at ZNGA Breakout

Interested reads today:

• Facebook has over 800 million users, filed today to raise $5 Billion in an IPO (Bloomberg)
• A REAL look at the housing market with Barry Ritholtz (Yahoo Video)
• Greece is heading to a "condition of absolute poverty" (ZeroHedge)
• Is 2012 set to be a copy performance of 2011? (Bespoke)

And the best are these 8 Facebook fun facts from its IPO prospectus (hat tip ZeroHedge):

1. Facebook's stock ticker will be "FB"
2. Facebook's IPO will raise $5 Billion
3. Facebook currently has 845 million monthly active users (MAU)
4. Facebook currently has 483 million daily active users (DAU)
5. Facebook has over 2.7 Billion likes and comments per day
6. There are 100 Billion friendships on Facebook
7. Facebook sees 250 million photos uploaded daily
8. Facebook had $3.7 Billion in revenue for 2011, 85% growth year over year (YOY)

Mind boggling! Will you be buying Facebook when it goes public?

Original post: February 1st, 2012 Market Recap with 8 Facebook IPO Fun Facts

Stocks wavered to a narrowly mixed finish Tuesday following a round of worst-than-expected economic reports, but the major indexes ended January with big gains.

Fun fact of the day, SentimenTrader (one of my favorite newsletters) reports,

For the first time in history, the S&P 500 never suffered any more than 0.6% drop during the entire month of January.

Pretty impressive I'd say. Jason goes on to note however that when looking at this occurrence for other months during the year there seems to be no meaningful buy or sell signal for moving forward.

In earnings, AMZN stock is down over 8% in after hours trade after reporting earnings that missed sales and gave a unimpressive outlook for Q1 revenue. Full breakdown at MarketWatch. The stock is sitting at about $177.50 currently.

Updated Gold chart analysis included tonight, see you back here tomorrow!

Original post: January 31st, 2012 Market Recap with AMZN, Gold Updates

The stock market closed lower Monday but well off its session lows. The Nasdaq, which had been down as much as 1.2% in early trading, closed with a 0.2% loss. Strength in techs seemed to help the composite.

• From what I gather from my reading, Europe's latest is that Greece is expected to be ousted from the Eurozone and the market has already baked in any other drama possibilities. Debt sales are going better than expected in countries like France and Italy, and leading powerhouse Germany is showing positive signs from its latest economic data. Track the Europe's debt crisis with this New York Times tool.
• Fun fact from today's Bespoke report on ETF performance year to date, Silver SLV is leading with a gain of +20.56% and natural gas UNG is leading the decliners with a -10.37% return ytd.
• For those who have been hearing yip yap about the looming "golden cross" (when the 50 day moving average crosses back above the 200 day moving average), Barry posted a good article on the topic which breaks down some truth behind it. While a positive signal historically, it is no golden "guaranteed to profit" opportunity.
• Lastly, if you are like me and have a hard time remembering earnings dates, I suggest using Yahoo Finance's earnings calender. I apologize for not mentioning it at the beginning of this past earnings season!

Stay frosty out there and I will see you back here tomorrow.

Original post: January 30th, 2012 Market Recap with Top ETFs YTD

Right now we are focusing on the very tight rising channel that has formed over the last month alongside the 10 MA. Both are shown below.

On the earnings front, the highlight today after the close is Starbucks (SBUX) which, "reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street's forecasts on Thursday and raised its full-year guidance although its outlook remains below analysts' expectations." The stock is down just over 2% in after hours trading. Chart below.

Tonight's charts have a bit more commentary included so I hope they are still easy to digest. And with that said, as usual there will be no recap tomorrow so stay frosty out there and I will see you back here on Monday.

Original post: January 26th, 2012 Market Recap with SBUX Analysis

Dan Zanger holds the World Record for the largest portfolio return in a single year (29,233%). His claim to fame is turning roughly $11,000 portfolio into $45 million over two years. Not bad at all I'd say .

Through his website, chartpattern.com, Dan has a nightly newsletter where he posts his latest research, analysis, and stock picks (read my full Dan Zanger review). His newsletter is one of my favorites and is a part of my daily routine.

Go Here for all the seminar info. Summary facts:

• Dan Zanger (ChartPattern) yearly seminar
• Saturday April 28th, 2012 at the Renaissance Los Angeles Airport Hotel
• Cost is $1,695 per person
• Limited seating (I hear around 100 participants max)
• Full agenda

This is obviously not a cheap seminar but what you pay for is what you get. The testimonials Dan has and the millionaires he's made make it quite a unique opportunity to learn from Dan live.

In full disclosure I am a very lucky guy because Dan and his team have decided to give me my ticket for free this year as a thank you for all the referrals I have sent their way. All I can say is that it is easy promoting a product you believe in and utilize yourself!

So, if you decide to head to the seminar this year please let me know so we can meet up. I hope to see you there!

Original post: Join me for the 2012 ChartPattern.com Seminar on April 28th, 2012

Apple Earnings summary:

• Q1 revenue of $46.33 Billion vs analyst expectations of $38.9 bln
• EPS was $13.87, vs. expectations of $10.10 per share
• 37.04 million iPhones sold, 128% growth yoy (year over year)
• 15.43 million iPads sold, 111% growth yoy
• 15.4 million iPods sold, -21% decrease yoy
• 5.2 million Macs sold, 26% growth yoy

Shares resumed trading at 4:50 PM and as of 4:53 PM they are up over 8% trading around $455 per share. This gives Apple an effective market cap of over $420 Billion, passing Exxon Mobil (XOM) as the largest company in the world. Here's a 1 min chart of after-hours trading showing the gap to $450+ via my thinkorswim by TD Ameritrade screen,

So ya... in other news... here's an updated look at the S&P 500. Stay frosty out there!

Original post: January 24th, 2012 Market Recap with Apple Earnings Results

• "Most measures of market sentiment are back to where they were last May just when the S&P 500 was peaking.
• Short interest has dried up to three year lows.
• The VIX closed the week below 20 for the first time since last July.
• As Mike Santoli points out in Barron's, volume in leveraged ETF's versus bearish ones has risen to levels that in the past touched off interim market pullbacks.
• Credit market indicators have lagged well behind the improvement in equity performance.
• The S&P 500 is three standard deviation points above its 20-day moving average.
• Again, as Barron's points out, the ratio of the 15-day volume puts on the S&P 100 Index to bullish call volume hit 2-to-1 last week - this happened in the February 2007, February 2011 and April 2011."

On the earnings front there are a few notables reporting tomorrow. Get ready for earnings reports from Apple (AAPL), McDonald's (MCD) and Coach (COH). Also on the economic front, Wednesday will have the latest Pending Home Sales data released.

I also wanted to mention a pretty cool website I stumbled across today while doing testing for the StockBrokers.com 2012 Broker Review set to be published next month. The site is Trefis.com and for visual investors it is interesting to say the least. The site breaks down each company visually to see what product lines make up the stock price value. Here's Apple's from the site below. Anyone use this before? I'd be curious to know if these are actually accurate metrics.

Notes aside, hope this market is treating you well and I will see you back here tomorrow! Try not to be too complacent out there

Original post: January 23rd, 2012 Market Recap... Complacency at Fresh Highs