The DJIA was up to a new all-time high for the ninth day in a row but gains in the indices were muted with the big cap Nasdaq names leading and small-caps lagging once again. Volume in many places was quite low and breadth was just slightly positive but there were some impressive pockets of momentum.
One group that stood out today was China-related names such as BitAuto Holdings (BITA) , Weibo (WB) and Alibaba (BABA) leading a rampage. A few pharmaceuticals moved on news but it was the bounce in technology and the FAANG names that gave the market a positive tone. The Trade Desk (TTD) , for example perked up nicely into its earnings later this week.
It was one of those slow days where traders decided that if they can't take things down then we might as well do some buying. There was no obvious news catalyst, positive or negative, today. There was no political news to distract anyone and nothing new on the economic front either. There simply wasn't any reason to believe that the big market top that the bears have been predicting was going to suddenly kick in today.
We have quite a few earnings reports from mainly secondary stocks coming this week and the action today suggests there is still a healthy appetite for speculative buying. It was actually stronger under the surface in momentum name than the indices indicated.
The bears are going to continue to argue that this is frothy action but this market is still rewarding the bulls.
Have a good evening. I'll see you tomorrow
