On Break

11/16/2008

BMB On Break

It’s time again for a little BMB R&R, especially with the market behaving as bizarrely as it’s been. Maybe if we stop watching it start to behave a little better…

Posting will be very light and variable over the course of this week, but we’ll put up an open thread each market day for our readers to comment on the day’s market activity or to post any interesting links they might run across.

Check the space below for whatever the latest might be during this ‘off’ time, and please visit the various sites in the ‘Links’ and ‘Regular Stops’ for up-to-date market news and analysis.

BMB will be back in full swing by next weekend.

Posted: 1:00 pm

2/19/2005

Combo Plate, Please

IGE chart If you’re looking for ways to play the energy, metals and materials sectors, you might want to take a look at the iShares Goldman Sachs Natural Resources Index Fund, symbol IGE. As its name implies, it is an ETF that tracks the GS Natural Resources Index, which is currently 63% oil, 14% oil services and 11% metals & mining. The rest is made up of paper/forest products and other basic materials. The fund summary page is located here.

As you can see from the chart, it’s been no slouch in the performance department over the past year. It only trades 30K shares a day, but that’s not a huge concern for the individual. You might just have to pay a little more attention to the bid/ask spread when making trades.

 

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com

Posted: 2:34 pm

Weekend Sector Scan

XLE chart Energy stocks continue to dominate the sector picture. After busting out of their trading range in the latter part of January, they have gone nowhere but up and moved away from their longer-term uptrend line. I would expect some consolidation and/or pullback to come sometime in the not-too-distant future, but the long term trend doesn’t seem to be in any danger.
XLB chart Basic Materials stocks have had a bumpy road on their way up from their lows of last spring, but this week made a strong move above their November and December highs. The last 4 weeks have been very strong in the XLB, which represents stocks of companies involved in chemicals, metals, paper, packaging, etc. (See components here).

 

Health care was the only other sector to move higher on the week, no doubt helped by the moves in Merck and Pfizer on Friday. It will be interesting to see if that turns out to be a catalyst that helps move the major drug stocks off their lows.

Here’s a look at this week’s numbers:

 

Sector Symbol 8 Week % Chg. 4 Week % Chg. 1 Week % Chg.
Energy XLE +15.2 +15.5 +4.0
Utilities XLU +3.6 +5.6 -0.3
Basic Materials XLB +2.6 +7.1 +2.7
Consumer Staples XLP +1.9 +1.3 -0.3
Health Care XLV +1.2 +3.3 +1.3
Industrials XLI -2.4 +3.4 -0.4
Consumer Discretionary XLY -2.4 +0.9 -0.2
Financials XLF -2.6 +0.9 -2.6
Technology XLK -6.1 +0.8 -1.5

 

Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com

Posted: 10:35 am