Market overview for April 15

We started the day on a negative bias for the index futures as a result of the Intel (INTC) earnings and some negative economic news regarding consumer price index.  Shares of INTC were under a lot of pressure despite the strong earnings and revenue report, which in turn led to strong weakness in Nasdaq and Semis.

However, it did not take long for the buyers to show up and as has been the case recently, financials and real estate led the market higher.  AMR preannounced early during the session and its stock soared 25% in 10 minutes and lifting all airlines stocks.  Initial strength in railroads quickly faded though and these ended at the lows.

It was another see-saw whipsaw kind of day for sure.  My first trade of the day was a long in ERY as the crude inventory numbers came in. However, the weakness in that sector did not prevail and the trade was good for a 50c scalp on half the position, and stopped out on the rest. I had four signals on the ES chart today which is unusual.  I acted on 3 of these for scalps of 30c to 50c.  Ironically, my last signal was the best of the day, but I only took half a position and the market rallied very strongly into the close.

My list of short candidates grows longer by the day.  We are still overbought and have not had breather in a while.  I believe the SPY has not had more than 2 down days in a row since March 10 - very impressive.  Tomorrow JPM and GOOG release earnings, and C on Friday.  My opinion is that anything short of spectacular is going to be sold - as has been the case recently with INTC and GS.

We are getting close to a stochastic sell setup on the weekly but the pattern is in early stages of forming.  The SPY is currently sitting right at the 20 period MA of the Weekly chart.  Lots of resistance overhead.

In the meantime - stay alert and focused in your trading and stick to your plan.  Good luck.