The bulls have a hope for this market right now. That hope is based on positive seasonality combined with poor positioning and some short-squeeze action.
So far, however, it is not working this morning.
The financial media is focused on the CEO change at Disney (DIS) , but the stock has been sold into strength so far and is falling into the opening gap. We're also hearing more talk about cryptocurrencies, but the lows are being tested in many areas, and the risk of another down leg is expanding.
The stock market action is dismal, as buyers fail to step in and stock prices slide lower. Total breadth is not quite two-to-one negative, but the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) is three-to- one negative and down more than 1%. Small caps are lifeless, as well. Oil is lagging badly, and a bounce in the dollar is causing some problems
What traders want to see are some pockets of momentum. Once there is enough action, it tends to feed on itself, but so far this morning, only about 15 stocks are moving more than 10%, and there are no obvious themes or sectors in play.
Most of the positive seasonality during Thanksgiving Week is on Wednesday and the half-day on Friday, so maybe some weak action now will be a good setup for better action later.
My Stock of the Week is Beyond Air (XAIR) , and is off to a good start due to a 50,000 share insider buy by a director of the company.
I'd like to be doing much more, but the market isn't offering us very much right now.
(Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider the stock of XAIR to be a small-cap stock. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.)
