Yahoo Finance Dow Slump Reaches 8 Days
This market doesn’t need a new headline to selloff on trade fears. President Trump was tweeting about other things today and there was no fresh tariff news on either the U.S. or the China side. And yet the major indices had their roughest session of an already murky week.
The NASDAQ tends to weather trade turmoil better than its counterparts; it even reached a new high just yesterday. But it dropped 0.88% on Thursday to nearly 7713. Along with the overall gloomy mood in the market, this tech-heavy index received another blow when the Supreme Court announced that states could collect sales taxes on online purchases. The news was a blow to online retailers and a potential boon for old school brick-and-mortar names.
However, the Dow is still getting the lion’s share of attention since its losing streak has now reached 8 days. The index is most susceptible to POTUS’ plan for tariffs on up to $250 billion worth of Chinese goods…with the possibility of $200 billion more down the road. It was off 0.80% on Thursday to 24,461.7 and enters Friday down by more than 2% for the whole week.
The S&P broke a three-session losing skid yesterday, but it was back in the red on Thursday with a loss of 0.63% to 2749.8. It’s down by more than 1% so far this week. The Russell 2000 actually had the worst plunge at 1.06% to nearly 1689, just a day after hitting a new high.
A couple of the editors were using today’s pullback to pick up quality stocks at attractive prices. Momentum Trader added a name that checks the boxes for two of the hottest areas right now: small caps and tech. Also, Technology Innovators found a cloud security company that seems set for a sharp bounce back. Read the highlights section for more...
Today's Portfolio Highlights:
Momentum Trader: The portfolio is looking to buy small-cap tech stocks right now, and Dave found a perfect contender with Xcerra Corp. (XCRA). The company is part of the semiconductor space, which is in the top 4% of the Zacks Industry Rank. Shares have been running up sharply of late, but the market’s pullback today presented a great opportunity to get involved. The editor added XCRA on Thursday with a 12.5% allocation. Read the full write-up for more.
Technology Innovators: Today’s selloff took a big toll on Zscaler (ZS), but that just opened up a chance for Brian Bolan to add a stock from his watchlist at a bargain price. The editor thinks this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) cloud security company could make up today’s pullback in the next week or so. In fact, he thinks ZS could be another fast turnaround and big double-digit percentage winner. Read the complete commentary for more.
Insider Trader: "The see-saw continued with a record high day followed by a sell off day.
"Interestingly, I saw some bears on various chat boards playing up the 8 down days in the Dow Industrials as proof that the big crash was here. It’s surprising to see the bears single it out right now given the bullishness in several of the other indexes such as the NASDAQ, the Russell 2000 and the microcaps.
"The Russell 2000, while declining today, is still up 10% year-to-date. It's June 21. Does a 10% return year-to-date seem really awful to you? Normally, this would not elicit talk of doom and gloom or that the stock market was in some kind of crash mode.
"But many investors have been heavily invested in the big cap names, including the Dow components, and some of those have weakened recently. However, many investors are used to little volatility so when some happens, it's a little shocking." -- Tracey Ryniec
All the Best,
Jim Giaquinto
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