NASDAQ, Russell Reach New Highs; S&P Snaps 3-Day Skid

The NASDAQ and Russell 2000 each closed with new records on Wednesday, while the S&P broke a three-session losing streak. It was a nice bounce back from yesterday’s selloff…except for the Dow, which finished its seventh day in the red.

President Trump really upped the ante on the trade talk yesterday by suggesting 10% tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, while threatening $200 billion more if China retaliates. The market responded by plunging on Tuesday morning, but came well off the lows by the closing bell.

On Wednesday, the turnaround was (mostly) complete. The Russell 2000, which has been holding up the best during this trade turmoil, rose 0.80% to a new record of 1706.99 as money continues to flow into small caps. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ also made history by gaining 0.72% to its own record of 7781.5 thanks to tech staples like Facebook and Netflix.

The S&P hadn’t closed in the green all week, but today it ended three days of losses with an advance of 0.17% to 2767.3.

And then there’s the Dow. The index opened the day solidly in the green and worked hard to stay there. But when all was said and done, it slipped 0.17% to 24,657.8 for a seventh straight negative close. No mystery here. With industrial names like 3M, Caterpillar and Boeing, the index is most concerned about a trade war developing with China.

In the portfolios, Dave Bartosiak was all over the place on Wednesday. The editor added new positions to Blockchain Innovators and Surprise Trader, while also banking a double-digit winner in Momentum Trader. In other news, Insider Trader and Home Run Investor also added in a rather busy day for the services. Learn all about it below:

Today's Portfolio Highlights:

Blockchain Innovators: Shares of Social Reality (SRAX) soared past $5 today after a “decent” earnings report and increased analyst coverage. This company created a blockchain platform for consumers to “own, verify and sell their data.” In other words, it’s a counter to profiting from consumer data like Facebook and Google, which is a popular idea right now. Dave likes the potential here and so he added SRAX to the portfolio on Wednesday. Read the full write-up for more.

Insider Trader: In just his first week on the job, the new CEO of Palo Alto Networks (PANW) made a huge purchase of his company’s shares. Specifically, he bought more than 62K shares for between $13 million and $14 million. Tracey considers this a big confidence buy and is all the more impressive since shares of PANW have reached new all-time highs after a strong earnings report. In fact, it’s up nearly 45% year to date. The editor is putting the portfolio’s extra cash into this name, which comes to an allocation of about 11.5%. Read the complete commentary for more.

Momentum Trader: The portfolio made a small profit when selling half of DMC Global (BOOM) back in late May, but the second half that was sold today brings a nice 14.6% return. Dave wants to free up some space in the service and thought the 4% rise in the stock today marked a great time to say goodbye to this maker of explosives for the industrial and oilfield infrastructure areas. The editor also sold the stalling Evertec (EVTC) position for a nearly 2.9% profit.

Home Run Investor: After a solid quarterly report and a 13% surge in shares over the past month, B&G Foods (BGS) still has a 34.5% short position. Brian Bolan has been looking to take advantage of the shorts and this name is a great opportunity to do just that. The editor added the name on Wednesday to bring the portfolio up to a fully-invested 15 names. Get a lot more specifics on this addition in the complete commentary.

Surprise Trader: It’s been a ‘buy high, sell higher’ sort of market, which explains why Dave had no problem buying fast-food chain Sonic (SONC) on Wednesday. The stock has been “on fire” all month and enjoys a positive Earnings ESP for the quarter being reported after the bell next Tuesday. The editor believes this stock has even further to climb. Read the full write-up for more.

All the Best,
Jim Giaquinto

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