Market Week In Review – 1/25/2021 – 1/29/2021
There are a number of things to study and learn from this week. Far more than I’ll be able to unwrap and understand in this week’s market in review.
"Successful trading is about finding the rules that work and then sticking to those rules." — William O'Neil
There are a number of things to study and learn from this week. Far more than I’ll be able to unwrap and understand in this week’s market in review.
Real Estate ( XLRE ) and Utilities ( XLU ) are the top sectors for the week. Ouch!
It was not a great way to end January, which until this week was a rather bullish month for investors. The onslaught of retail traders on hedge funds proved to be too much for the market to handle.
The Nasdaq tried to have a bullish day but was turned away by the bears in the afternoon. There was still a gain for the day, but if the market was open another hour, that gain might have been wiped out.
Today was a little more exciting then yesterday, but not in the way we wanted. The Nasdaq opened with a gap down, chopped back and forth and then sold off after the Fed announcements. The fed will keep current monetary policy and interest rates, but said there are still a lot of headwinds for the economy.
Although some wild happenings continue to occur in the market, the Nasdaq composite index had a rather boring day. And that can be a good thing. Yesterday’s big dip and recovery followed a week of huge growth. So a day of mostly sideways action, which held lows well above last week’s highs, can be very constructive for the index.
There was expectation coming into the week that it would be choppy, but we didn’t expect that chop to all happen within 30 minutes. But that’s how it goes sometimes. Investors were already playing defense in the opening minutes of the day, despite the index setting a new all-time high. But the bulls caught the downward action mid-morning and brought the Nasdaq back to gains in the afternoon.
As the previous week was full of caution and indecision, this week the market as full of optimism. The gap-up on Wednesday, Inauguration Day, was the biggest statement of the week. Investment poured back into mega-caps with several of the biggest companies rising to new all-time highs after months of sideways consolidation. But small-caps and growth stocks were not left behind. It was a positive week across all the indexes.
The only significant pivots during the week were on Wednesday, January 20th which was inauguration day. That day saw a spike in Communications, Technology and Real Estate ( XLRE ).
Welcome back to the game RUT! It was a mixed session for most of the major indexes. But the Russell 2000 proved there is more room for small-caps to grow. The Nasdaq was also able to end with a small gain for the day after fighting off morning bears and making a new all-time high before dropping back slightly at close.