The positive sympathy generated by the strong reaction to Apple's (AAPL) earnings is fading fast. AAPL is still holding the bulk of its gains, but the S&P 500 has gone red -- and breadth is steadily slipping. We have some relative strength in big-cap technology names, such as Alphabet (GOOGL) , Amazon (AMZN) and Facebook (FB) , but there is increased hesitancy to chase, especially with the FOMC interest rate decision coming this afternoon. FB and GOOGL are part of the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio, and AMZN is part of the Growth Seeker portfolio.
One of bigger problems for traders today is that the speculative action in small-cap "junk" names has dried up. There has been some very aggressive trading in names like Ocean Power Technology (OPTT) , SkyPeople Fruit Juice (SPU) , China Ceramics (CCCL) and Sophiris Bio (SPHS) , but they are all cooling off quickly now.
There is some interest in silver and metals, but they are hard trades in front of the Fed. The precious metals is always one of the groups that moves quickly on the FOMC policy statement.
I have a smattering of positions, but a number of them are trend trades I've been riding for a while, and my positions have been reduced into strength. Acacia Communications (ACIA) and Yirendai (YRD) are good examples of great stocks that may require some defense to make sure those gains don't slip away.
I mentioned adding BioTelemetry (BEAT) yesterday, and I still like Tesaro (TSRO) , Fabrinet (FN) , Teck Resources (TCK) and Splunk (SPLK) , but they need to setup better technically to allow for better entry points.
Oil inventory is building again, and that is causing some issues -- but, as usual, we are on hold until we get the Fed announcement out of the way.
