Friday, December 21, 2018

IBD: "Dow Jones Surrenders 394-Point Gain; FANG Stocks Thrashed"

The DJIA is down 16.7% from its all-time high but for whatever reason, media amplification, relentlessness since Oct. 3, lack of resilience in other asset classes, for whatever reason this decline feels worse than objective reality.

From Investor's Business Daily:
4:16 PM ET
A 394-point intraday gain for the Dow Jones was looking good for the bulls early Friday after New York Fed President John Williams made some market-friendly comments. But it didn't take long for the bears to regain control in another volatile session.

FANG stocks like Netflix (NFLX), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Facebook (FB) endured another session of heavy selling as the Nasdaq composite fell 3%. It suffered a weekly decline of 8.4%.

The Dow Jones lost 1.8% and the S&P 500 gave back 2.1%. Volume was heavy due to the simultaneous expiration of index and stock futures and options. Known as quadruple witching, it only occurs four times a year.
The Dow Jones fell 6.9% for the week, its worst weekly decline since the financial crisis in 2008. The S&P 500 notched a weekly decline of 7%.
In a CNBC interview, Williams said the Federal Reserve could reassess its interest rate policy in the new year if the economy slows more than expected. Meanwhile, the prospects of a government shutdown weighed on financial markets as President Donald Trump battled with Democrats over a spending bill. Trump said he would not sign a temporary government resolution without funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Amazon is now 32% off its recent high, while Netflix and Facebook have pulled back just over 40% from their recent highs.

Dow Jones Winners
A few stocks in the Dow Jones industrials bucked the trend. Nike (NKE) was the outright winner, up 7% after earnings and sales came in better than expected. Still, the stock met resistance at its 200-day moving average around 74.50.

Procter & Gamble (PG) also outperformed, ending mostly flat. It's testing support at the 50-day moving average.

Outside of the Dow Jones, another consumer staple stock is making a good test of its 50-day line. Shares of Church & Dwight (CHD) added 0.4% to 64.90.

Top-Performing Growth Stocks
Atlassian (TEAM) continued to fight a good fight amid a lot of selling in the software sector. Shares fell 1.4% as it works on a cup-with-handle base with an 89.92 entry. It was featured in today's Sector Leaders column....MORE
And earlier:
3:30 PM ET
Dow Jones Sinks Nearly 1,500 Points For Week; 3 Reasons Why This Bear Market Could Get Worse

Finally, see also yesterday's Hulbert: "Santa Claus is coming to Wall Street — after Christmas".