Bull Run Takes Stocks And ETFs Higher On Tuesday

U.S. stocks and ETFs climbed again on Tuesday to start the holiday shortened week in the green.

Positive earnings, the breaching of significant technical resistance levels and growing bullish sentiment pushed major indexes higher in spite of misses in today’s economic reports.

The Chicago National Activity Index declined -0.11 for December compared to -0.13 for the previous reading while December existing home sales declined to 4.94 million, missing expectations and down from 4.99 million in the previous period.

For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) gained 0.46%, the S&P 500 (SPY) added 0.44%, the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) climbed 0.11% and the Russell 2000 (IWM) jumped 0.72%.

Major winners in the financial sector (XLF) were Travelers (TRV) up 2.15% and Bank Of America (BAC) gaining 1.89%.

The financial sector ETF (XLF) gained 0.93% on the day.

In the tech sector (XLK) winners included Apple (AAPL) which gained 0.95% and International Business Machines (IBM) which added 0.83% in the regular session. Google (GOOG) and International Business Machines (IBM) were big winners in the after hours session after reporting positive earnings, with Google (GOOG) adding 4.9% and IBM climbing 4.2%.

Optimism has also been generated, at least for the short term, by the anticipated Wednesday vote in the House of Representatives to extend the debt ceiling deadline to May which doesn’t solve the problem but removes the short term pressure on the market.

Earnings and technical factors look bullish for stocks and ETFs
Earnings will continue to dominate tomorrow with Apple (AAPL) scheduled to report, along with General Dynamics (GD) and McDonald’s. (MCD)

Boeing (BA) continues facing stress over its problems with the Dreamliner, however, the Dow Jones Industrial ETF (DIA) managed to post a solid gain for the day.

On Friday, Dow Theory, the well known and long standing trading system invented by Charles Dow, flashed a sell signal and last week’s break of 1470 on the S&P 500 (SPY) opened the way for technical traders to see higher prices ahead. However, this ongoing rally now leaves major U.S. stock indexes and ETFs in overbought condition and so subject to at least a short term correction.

Bottom line: With relatively positive fundamentals and technical hurdles overcome, major U.S. indexes and ETFs appear poised to make a run at all time highs, however, major technical resistance awaits at those levels. Shorter term, overbought conditions and increasingly frothy conditions pose the possibility for a near term correction or pause.

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