/ February 11
Daily Briefing
*The stock market kicked off the week with an upbeat start, bouncing back from Friday's declines in a buy-the-dip trade; the Nasdaq Composite jumped +1.0%, the S&P 500 rose +0.7%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed +0.4% higher;
*The major indices closed on their highs of the day with many stocks participating in index gains; as is usually the case, mega-cap stocks played a crucial role, leading the upside charge; NVIDIA (NVDA, +2.9%), Microsoft (MSFT, +0.6%), and Amazon.com (AMZN, +1.7%) were standouts from the space;
*SPY is maintaining its bullish trend; the consolidation pattern in place since early November is still in play, as the benchmark ETF has not yet broken out of meaningful resistance; technical support managed to remain intact, and the market has proven resilient;
*The MACD signal hangs on to its positive status, avoiding a negative crossover in the short term;
*Buying interest yesterday was also fueled by earnings reports; McDonald's (MCD, +4.8%) posted strong results, along with Rockwell Automation (ROK, +12.7%) and Monday.com (MNDY, +26.5%);
*Activity in the options market favored sectors like Tech (XLK) and Healthcare (XLV); bullish transactions (calls bought + puts sold) did not constitute a majority of trades for most ETFs, however; the average bullish volume for the day, in the short term, was 43%, slightly below the neutral mark; the medium term is holding up better, at 52%;
*President Trump announced a new series of tariffs (25% on steel and aluminum), but the market took it in stride; stocks directly linked to these metals saw noticeable gains; Nucor (NUE, +5.6%) and Alcoa (AA, +2.2%) were among the winners;
*The New York Fed's Survey of Consumer Expectations also had little impact on the equity market; inflation expectations remained stable, with one-year and three-year projections unchanged at 3.0%, while five-year expectations edged up by 0.3% to 3.0%;
*On the bond side, yields were steady; the 10-year Treasury yield settled one basis point higher at 4.49%;
*TLT lost -0.3% on the day, but did not break support at the M-Trend level; treasuries remain investible at the moment;
*Signal Sigma strategies are rebalancing portfolios today, so look out for trade alerts in your inbox; we will review all platform metrics and strategy positioning in the Portfolio Rebalance article next week;