In the immortal words of Kenny Rogers, "You've got to know when to hold 'em. Know when to hold 'em. Know when to walk away and know when to run."
This is one of those days when it may pay to walk away. From my standpoint, the market is essentially untradeable right now. Volume is abysmal, price action is poor and there is very little movement in individual stocks. The Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) is hovering near the lows of the day while the Nasdaq 100 slightly outperforms. Breadth is running about 2,900 gainers to 3,600 decliners.
There is some life in the biotechnology sector. Names like Flexion (FLXN) , Axovant (AXON) and Sarepta (SRPT) are up but there doesn't seem to be any appetite for chasing. Technology has very little movement outside of Momo (MOMO) and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) .
What is most notable on my screens is that I have just a handful of stocks that are up more than 5% today. I run scans that track big price moves and increased volume and it's the slowest it has been in a while.
One new name I put on my radar recently is ProPetro Holding (PUMP) . This is a recent IPO that is involved in oil services in the Permian Basin. It had good initial coverage from underwriters such as Goldman with a target of $25 and JPMorgan with a $20 target. It trades thin and is volatile, but it's the sort of chart I will look to nibble at as it slowly develops.
The indices are taking another hit as I write and that will probably push a number of traders out the door to start the long weekend early. Sometimes the market just doesn't offer us much opportunity. Today is one of those days.
