EB Daily Market Report - Friday, February 16, 2024

Dear Members:

The bears got some good news this morning as the PPI reading came out hotter than expected. And early on it looked like they might have their way. But, as we've seen lately, traders like to take advantage of any pullbacks with the S&P and Dow now in positive territory while the NASDAQ is well off session lows.

One can wonder what is it going to take for the bears to actually regain control. So far the bulls are ignoring negative economic news, overbought conditions and any news that would normally result in selling. And, overall earnings have been strong enough to keep prices buoyed. 

Speaking of earnings, NVDA is on tap to report their numbers next week. And to me, that could be the defining moment for the market, at least in the near term. Why? Because the semiconductor sector has been on fire, and NVDA has led the way. There's nothing to indicate anything other than their numbers should be strong. But might this be a "sell on the news" moment, no matter how strong their earnings? We're going to find out next week but if for any reason NVDA were to come up short of expectations, that might be the trigger the bears are waiting for.

In the meantime we've now got resistance on the S&P at 5048, the most recent high. To the downside, the bulls would like to see the most recent low of 4920 hold. Remember that the market will be closed on Monday so we will have to wait until Tuesday to take another look at where things stand.

At your service, 

John Hopkins