Author Archive for sterlinginvestments

Sterling Market Commentary for Wednesday January 25th, 2012

A Few Thoughts on Wednesday’s Market: In looking at the charts from yesterday’s trading activity I noticed that it looks like the NASDAQ 100 ‘NDX’ has entered an area of upside resistance that could be tough to get through. Additionally the very vast majority of the sector indices I track are not confirming the move higher by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Granted I expect the NASDAQ to be higher today due to the incredible earnings by Apple, Inc. ‘AAPL’. However…………….

Sterling Market Commentary for January 24th, 2012

It should be noted that on Friday the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Friday at 12,720.48 Last summer the Dow closed at 12,724.41 on July 21st, and at 12,719.49 on July 7th. This is significant because if we see the Dow Jones Industrial Average moves back lower from these levels, then we will effectively have put in place a “triple top,” which should be considered a significant point of upside resistance. It should also be noted that this move higher has not been confirmed by the either the……………………

Sterling Market Commentary for October 20th, 2011

A Look at Wednesday’s Market Activity: The overall market moved moderately lower in a broad based move that saw every sector index I track move lower as well. The weakest sectors were the Gold/Silver, High Tech, Banking, Broker/Dealer, Chemicals, Oil Services, Commodities, and Transports. In the commodities, Oil was lower by $2.24 to $86.29 and Gold was lower by $5.80 to $1,647 per ounce. In the grain market, Wheat was lower by $.056 to $6.194 per bushel, and Corn was lower by $0.054 to $6.384 per bushel, while Soybeans were lower by $0.256 to $12.25 per bushel.

Sterling Market Commentary for October 19th, 2011

A Few Thoughts Before the Open: In looking at the charts from yesterday’s trading activity I have the following thoughts and comments.

1. Trading volume continues to be light. This causes me concern over the strength of the rally.

2. Several of the sector indices I am looking at indicate that they could be in the process of breaking out to the upside.

3. This is option’s expiration week. As I have written about in the past, I have seen a common trend of the market reversing its previous trend during options expiration week, and then resuming its prior trend at the start of the new options month. I believe this is a result of …….

Sterling Market Commentary for October 18th, 2011

A Look at Monday’s Activity: The overall market moved sharply lower Monday in a broad based move that saw every sector index I track move lower on the day. The weakest sectors were the Banking, Oil Services, Cyclicals, High Tech, Insurance, Commodities, Broker/Dealers, and Transports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 212 points. Among the Dow 30 the weakest stocks were Alcoa, Hewlett-Packard, 3M, and United Technologies. In the commodity sector, Oil was lower by $0.38 to $86.62 per barrel, and Gold was lower by $6.40 to $1,676.60 per ounce. In the grains, Wheat was higher by $0.014 to $6.242 per bushel, and Corn was higher by $0.004 to $6.404 per bushel, while Soybeans were lower by $0.17 to $12.53 per bushel.

Sterling Weekly for the Week of October 17th, 2011 – Time to Start the Inflation Watch

Time to Start the Inflation Watch: The economy continues to be a major topic of conversation for most of the country. The European Debt Crisis continues to be a major talking point and news item. However, I have serious concerns that the European Crisis while very severe in nature is also distracting us from our own economic problems here in the United States. Our economy has stagnated as a businesses adopt a defensive posture over concerns about rising regulatory costs and general uncertainty. Additonally you do not need to talk to anyone in business for too long before they start to voice concerns about rising inflation as a result of the sky-high budget deficits being run by the Federal government……In case you think I am barking at moon or crying wolf, I took a look at our current expenses and compared them to five years ago. In our household we have seen a 40% increse in our….

Sterling Market Commentary for October 17th, 2011

A Few Thoughts Before the Open: In looking at the charts from Friday’s market activity I have the following thoughts and comments.

1. Volume was very light across the board. On an average morning I review the charts on approximately 40 indexes, all the stocks setting new yearly highs, and all stocks that traded more than 1 million shares the day before. In looking at the charts from Friday’s activity, I saw nothing that broke out to the upside that had a volume confirmation. That alone should be a warning bell for the upcoming market.

2. In looking at the Dow Jones Industrial Average it is interesting to note that Friday’s close appears to have been pretty much right on the 200 day moving average.

Sterling Market Commentary for October 14th, 2011

The overall market was rather dull yesterday. It reminds me of an old saying about never shorting a dull market. It looks like we may be seeing a rally in the high tech sector as many of the high tech indices put in good performances yesterday. However while it is very tempting to declare the start of a market rally, which may be the case; I continue to stand by convictions that we need to see a close above 11,613.53 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average in order to confirm a breakout from the sideways pattern we’ve been in since mid-August.

Sterling Market Commentary for October 13th, 2011

It’s been a few days since my last post as I’ve been out of the office on a few projects and just not available prior to the open. Since then the overall market has put in a strong rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen from a closing low of 10,655.30 to close at 11,518.85 yesterday for a gain of 863.55 points or approximately 8.1%. As of yesterday’s close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is now down only 1.39% on the year. While my 1st Rule a Trend may be that a trend remains in place until it is broken; my 2nd Rule of Trends is that the longer a trend remains in place the greater the chance it will be broken……………..

Sterling Market Commentary for October 10th, 2011

n looking at the charts from Friday’s activity I have the following thoughts.

1. The pre-market futures are sharply higher this morning due to the news out of Europe that Germany and France have pledged to come to a solution for the European debt crisis within the next 2 weeks. This makes me nervous. They have not actually agreed upon a solution. Additionally deadlines to come to agreement typically produce bad agreements in my opinion. I have said it before, and I’ll say it again; Europe has deep structural problems with its entitlement system that are generational in nature and will take years, if not decades to fix, if at all……………….