One of the problems the market has experienced in recent weeks is that we aren't seeing much gap-and-run action. There will be a strong open, but it is being sold rather father. There is still underlying support, as the dip buyers are still anxious to do their thing, but there isn't sustained intraday momentum recently.
Yesterday was a good case in point. As the gap up open was sold, an intraday low was made in the mid-morning, stocks pushed higher and then faltered in the last minute of trading. It wasn't bad action, but it was choppy and sloppy.
What makes the action rather annoying is that the media and even President Trump are focused on the DJIA, which is hitting new all-time highs on Boeing (BA) which is acting like Yahoo did back in 2000. There is almost nothing else acting like BA, but because of the peculiar way in which the DJIA is calculated, it is creating the illusion of a much stronger market than it really is.
Under the surface, it isn't nearly as upbeat. Technology, especially semiconductors, and biotechnology are struggling. Banks are taking up some of the slack and oil was helping as well, but breadth has been nothing special and the number of stocks at 12-month highs is limited.
Another challenge this market is presenting is that the stocks that were leading no longer are. If you haven't rotated into some new names, it is quite easy to lag. In addition, while there are many good earnings reports, there isn't much chasing. There are a few, like Shopify (SHOP) and Lumber Liquidators (LL) , which have high short interests that are running, but it's narrow than past earnings season.
I'd like to be more positive about the market, but I simply don't see much action right now. There are some potentially good picks, but they are not in shape technically right now. China names like Weibo (WB) seem to offer the best action at the moment.
