• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Doug Kass
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Stocks

The Bear Returns to the Market

The action Wednesday was a return to typical bear market trading, as stocks moved in a correlated way.
By JAMES "REV SHARK" DEPORRE
May 13, 2020 | 04:57 PM EDT
Stocks quotes in this article: AMZN, CODX, CHWY, BILI, IWM, XLF

The selling that hit on Tuesday afternoon gained momentum Wednesday as Fed Chair Jerome Powell failed to bolster the "don't fight the Fed" argument and another billionaire expressed bearish views.

David Tepper is the latest mogul to publicly announce his doubts about the market and joins a list that includes Warren Buffett, Sam Zell, Stanley Druckenmiller, Howard Marks, Chamath Palihapitiya, Carl Icahn, Tudor Jones, and Mark Cuban. I find this list more interesting than instructive, but it does indicate that there is likely to be a very vigorous market battle in the months ahead.

Overall, the action Wednesday was a return to typical bear market trading. Stocks traded in a very correlated way and breadth was better than five to one negative. There were not many safe havens but some of the coronavirus plays such as Amazon (AMZN) , Co-Diagnostics (CODX) , Chewy (CHWY) , and Bilibili (BILI)  performed well.

The strong level of trading under the surface eased some of the pain today and illustrates that there is still some very driven speculative traders that are looking hard for opportunities even when the overall action is quite poor. It is when that undercurrent of support erodes and market players grow disgusted, that the bear market really becomes painful.

Interestingly, the Russell 2000 exchange-traded fund  (IWM)  found support almost exactly at its 200-day simple moving average. I'm looking for some support levels to develop fairly quicky, and a trading range to develop in the near term. As the action in financials Financial Select Sector SPDR fund  (XLF)  shows, the issue of a technical retest is not off the table for some portion of the market.

The key to this market is to be opportunistic rather than bullish or bearish. There are still some good long trades even when the indexes drop 2%

Have a good evening. I'll see you tomorrow.

(Amazon is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS member club. Want to be alerted before Jim Cramer buys or sells this stock? Learn more now.)

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

At the time of publication, DePorre was long CODX, CHWY, BILI.

TAGS: Federal Reserve | Investing | Stocks | Bearish Bet

More from Stocks

Applied Materials Slips on Miss: Where Will the Chips May Fall

Bruce Kamich
May 20, 2022 1:00 PM EDT

Let's see what the charts say.

Consumer Confidence Is Shot

Bret Jensen
May 20, 2022 12:00 PM EDT

Until things start to improve for the average consumer, it is hard to see significant upward moves for either the markets or economic activity.

I'm Cautious on Marvell Technology Ahead of Earnings

Bruce Kamich
May 20, 2022 11:52 AM EDT

Let's review the charts and indicators.

Retail Stocks Are Moving Fast: Here's One That Might Be Worth Catching

Jonathan Heller
May 20, 2022 11:30 AM EDT

It is refreshing to visit a store that has the items in stock that it claims to on its website.

You Can Trade and Invest in Palo Alto Networks: Here's How

Stephen Guilfoyle
May 20, 2022 11:00 AM EDT

It still takes a bit of guts and some nose holding to keep this stock on board in this environment.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 10:10 AM EDT JAMES "REV SHARK" DEPORRE

    This Weekend on Real Money

    "Market Timing for Dummies"
  • 01:44 PM EDT STEPHEN GUILFOYLE

    Stocks Under $10 Portfolio

    We're making a series of trades here.
  • 03:07 PM EDT PAUL PRICE

    Why Is Walmart Down Big Today?

    Besides its poor earnings report Walmart was way...
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2022 TheStreet, Inc., 225 Liberty Street, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10281

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login