The indices moved higher across the board on Wednesday as Fed Chairman Powell made some relatively dovish comments during his testimony to Congress. All four indices opened higher and stayed in positive territory all day with the exception of the Russell which dipped in to negative territory for a brief period.
The Nasdaq led the way with a gain of 0.75% and it was followed by the S&P which moved up 0.45%. The Dow tacked on 0.29% and the Russell finished with a gain of 0.18%.
[hana-code-insert name=’adsense-article’ /]Seven of the 10 sectors moved higher on the day with the energy sector leading the way with a gain of 1.33%.The communication services sector moved up 1.15% and it was the only other sector to gain more than one percent.
The financial sector suffered the worst loss at 0.39% and it was followed by the industrial sector with a drop of 0.27%.
The materials sector declined 0.21% and was the third sector in the red.
My scans stretched their string of negative results to six straight sessions with 36 names on the bearish side and five names on the bullish side.
Even with this negative reading the barometer inched up slightly. The final reading was -46.7 after a reading of -54.6 on Tuesday.
Even though my scans continue to produce more bearish signals than bullish ones, I felt it was time for a bullish trade idea to balance out the bearish ones from the last few days. Entegris (Nasdaq: ENTG) appeared on the bullish list and the company has good fundamental ratings with an EPS score of 86 and an SMR score of an A.
The chart shows the strong upward move from the December low through the high in early May. The stock pulled back after that high and then bounced again. The stock pulled back again last week and that was just enough to move the daily stochastic readings in to overbought territory and now they have turned higher and made a bullish crossover.
Buy to open the August 35-strike calls on ENTG at $2.30 or better. These options expire on August 16. In order for these options to double the stock will need to reach $39.60. That price is just above the July 1 high, but well below the May high. I suggest a target gain of 100% with a stop at $34.80.
— Rick Pendergraft
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