• Good morning, everyone. .
• Welcome to Thursday morning. .
• It's Stephen Whiteside here from T heUpTrend.com In the premarket this .
• morning, stock index futures are up across the board. .
• So far, it looks like the market wants to do some buying. .
• But we do have economic numbers coming out at 8:30, including jobless claims. .
• And of course, they can add to the premarket volatility. .
• Well, yesterday, the VIX closed up a little bit. .
• It is still trading below the lower channel line. .
• And that, of course, is bullish for stocks. .
• Our view of the short term direction of .
• the market would change on Thursday if the VIX were to close above .
• $14.06. Now, the US dollar index is still on a sell signal, no change. .
• That is supportive for higher stock prices. .
• Bond prices continue to move higher on Wednesday. .
• That put pressure on bond yields. .
• And of course, that is supportive for higher stock prices. .
• Now, crude oil moved up yesterday. .
• It is back on a buy signal. .
• Whether you're trading the futures .
• contract or the USO ETF, that can help the Canadian market. .
• You can see it also put upward pressure on .
• gasoline, which is not good for the consumer. .
• Gas prices have been falling for a while .
• now and they could start to turn around if we get some upward momentum in crude oil. .
• It was good for the Canadian market. .
• Energy stocks were up on the day just less than one %, while U. .
• S. .
• Energy stocks were down just under three quarters of a % for the day. .
• Now, the DOW put in a new high yesterday .
• and reversed, giving us a bearish reversal signal. .
• But two things didn't happen for the DOW. .
• The DOW actually closed higher on the day .
• and certainly didn't close below the previous days low. .
• Now, what worked on the DOW? .
• Well, the biggest winner was Salesforce followed by Intel and then Nike. .
• Those were the big winners on the DOW. .
• Like the DOW, the S&P 500 put in a bearish reversal day, but did not close below the .
• previous day's low, so not overly concerned about that. .
• I have the biggest winners on the S&P 500, .
• NetApp, followed by General Motors, followed by Charles Schwab. .
• Then looking at the Nasdaq-100, again, .
• bearish reversal signal, but we did not close below the previous days low. .
• The biggest winners were Workday, followed by CrowdStrike, followed by Illumina. .
• And this stock is one of the dogs of the .
• Nasdaq, and it's down over 60 % on the year, not something I would want to chase. .
• And then we've been following some indexes .
• and ETFs to see if the market was going to broaden out. .
• We would like the Russell 2000 to participate more. .
• It has certainly been on a buy signal .
• and has moved up and is stuck at the 181.25 level. .
• This is a significant level for the Russell 2000. .
• And if we look at a weekly chart, and .
• we've talked about this many times, we're stuck in a range, $200 .
• was the top of the range in 2023 and $160.25 has been the bottom. .
• Where are we right now? .
• Well, we're right in the exact middle of .
• that range, looking to see if we can move up from here. .
• That would be a bullish sign for the overall market. .
• We're also watching semiconductors closely. .
• They're stuck at 200. .
• We traded above that level yesterday, .
• got as high as 204, ended the day back down at the $200 level, just closing .
• slightly above it at $200.72. And then we're also watching the next .
• generation Nasdaq stocks, they're stuck at 25. .
• We traded above it yesterday before pulling back. .
• So the Russell 2000, semiconductors, sixth generation tech stocks, we'd like to see .
• all of these start breaking out above resistance. .
• That would be a good sign going forward. .
• Then looking at the Canadian market, the .
• IShares for the Russell 2000 moved up into the channel. .
• A close above $30.63 would get us back on a buy signal. .
• We saw Brookfield Asset Management lead .
• the TSX 60 higher on Wednesday followed by Bank of Nova Scotia. .
• So tremendous amount of regret here. .
• We gap lower on Tuesday and said, hey, everything we thought about the stock on .
• Tuesday was wrong and now we're moving back up. .
• So looking for a close above $60.23 .
• on Thursday to give us a buy signal for the bank in Nova Scotia. .
• Brookfield was the next big winner on the TSX 60. .
• Let's broaden things out. .
• Look at the TSX itself. .
• Osisko Mining was the big winner, followed by Filo, followed by West Dome. .
• Those were the big winners on the TSX. .
• Let's finish off looking at financials. .
• We've got a lot of bank earnings this week .
• and the bank index has come back up over the last couple of days. .
• So we're sitting right on the edge of a new daily buy signal. .
• The TSX financials move back up. .
• They are back on a buy signal as of Wednesday's close. .
• We were looking for a close above 352.58. We closed at 352.75. In the US, of .
• course, we've watched the financials move up as well. .
• It hasn't been the banks. .
• It's been more the broker, dealers and .
• insurance companies have been leading the financials higher. .
• There's the S&P bank ETF making a new high for this move. .
• And there's the regional bank. .
• So not performing as well as insurance .
• companies and broker dealers, but they're certainly on buy signals. .
• And both of the banks and the regional .
• banks made new highs for this move on Wednesday. .
• Okay, folks, that is all for this morning's presentation. .
• We're coming into month end. .
• The market doesn't usually like to. .
• Fight against the automatic money that comes in around the month end, so we .
• usually don't see a major pullback at this time. .
• And I wouldn't be surprised if the next .
• couple of days were positive going into the weekend. .
• Enjoy the rest of your day. .
• Next time you'll hear my voice is on. Friday morning. .