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Here we are! The day before the very foundation of our government rumbles at the testimony of former FBI Director James Comey, who holds the future of President Donald Trump in his hands.
Well, that’s how some people see it anyway.
Many others expect it to be much less dramatic than that. In fact, we’ve already received Mr. Comey’s prepared testimony for tomorrow (Zacks Counterstrike has more on this in the highlights section below), and it doesn’t appear to contain a smoking gun. Of course, no one knows what will happen when they start asking him questions or how the media will interpret it.
The most important thing for today, though, was that the market didn’t collapse in fear. Actually, the major indices put together their first positive session of the week. The S&P climbed 0.16% to 2433.1, the Dow advanced 0.18% to 21,173.7 and the NASDAQ increased 0.36% to 6297.4.
There were no buys or sells in the portfolios on Wednesday, but there was a lot to talk about. Reitmeister Trading Alert had a truly epic performance today, while Insider Trader saw a double-digit winner. Read more below, along with some analysis from other portfolios as we move toward tomorrow’s big events.
Today's Portfolio Highlights:
Reitmeister Trading Alert: If you didn’t get anything out of this session, then you haven’t been following the Reitmeister Trading Alert. The portfolio SHELLACKED the market on Wednesday by 9.4X to 1. As Steve said: “Savor it my friends. These kinds of triumphs only come around 3-5 times per year and make a big difference in the yearly tally. The rest of the time is like hand to hand combat where the margin of victory is small and often comes with some nicks and bruises…but not today!”
Insider Trader: Hawaiian Holdings (HA) was very busy in May, which was on full display today when the parent of Hawaiian Airlines released traffic results for the month. Revenue Passenger Miles (RPMs), Available Seat Miles (ASMs) and Load Factor all improved last month. Most importantly though, HA raised its expectation for operating revenue per ASM growth in the second quarter to between 7.5% and 10.5% from the earlier forecast of 5.5% to 8.5%. Shares soared by more than 12% on Wednesday, giving Insider Trader the best performing stock among all the portfolios by a wide margin.
Momentum Trader: "Today is an awkward day for a write-up because we are firmly in limbo right now. It’s not a bad place to be in limbo, up here near the all-time highs, but we’ve got some unexpected event risk lingering. We all know that the market loves to over-hype events that should be of little relevance. This week the hype is all about the James Comey testimony due out tomorrow.
"Whether today goes down as the day before it all hit the fan or just another Wednesday remains to be seen. If I were a betting man, which I am, I’d put my money on tomorrow being a non-event. Sure, the media will hype it up…but in the grand scheme of things, I expect us to be back to business as usual on Friday.
"While the Comey testimony will certainly dominate the headlines tomorrow, it’s the FOMC that lingers. I expect the market to surge past both of these events. Earnings cures all and this bull market isn’t about to run out of stream just because of a rate hike we already expected." -- Dave Bartosiak
Zacks Counterstrike: "This big event this week was supposed to be Comey's testimony on Thursday. Instead we got that today as it was released around 2PM eastern.
"To sum it all up, there were no smoking guns in there that would scare markets into selling off. This is a huge risk off the table from a day that traders were worried about. For that reason markets rallied from afternoon lows and saw the S&P finishing up 0.16%, while the Nasdaq close 0.36% higher.
"Volumes were still very low today and if it wasn’t for a North Korea missile launch and the Comey news, we would have seen a very tight range once again. We still have the British election tomorrow, but that will likely effect the British Pound more than anything else. So I continue to expect the market to remain quiet for the foreseeable future." -- Jeremy Mullin, who links to Comey's testimony in his complete commentary.
All the Best,
Jim Giaquinto
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