Markets continue to creep higher despite the “Sell in May” attitude that was widely reported by various statisticians, including ourselves in the previous rundown. Economic reports have been coming in mixed but the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics caught many off-guard as the unemployment rate dropped to 7.5% and payrolls rose by 165,000. It is also worth mentioning that revisions were made to the two previous months which added more than 100,000 jobs to the prior reports.

Meanwhile, initial claims or the number of people filing for unemployment benefits,has been steadily retreating, which continues to signal strength in employment.

During earnings season, equities become quite volatile, and signals can reverse rather quickly after an earnings release. We find it important to try to avoid ALERTS! for company’s that are reporting within approximately two weeks to avoid this volatility. However, now that earnings season is on the tail end, many charts are beginning to show signs of potential breaks that may provide good opportunities. Speaking of earnings season, a little over 80% of the companies in the S&P 500 excluding financials have reported as of today and the results are a mixed, but still slanted to the positive.

In the 1st quarter of 2013, companies have struggled to beat out analysts estimates for sales / revenue growth, but have handily beat on earnings. Energy, industrials and materials have been the lagging sectors with the greatest percentage of misses while consumer discretionary exhibits overall relative strength.
In this edition of The Rundown, we continue to look at the more recent ALERTS! and their various performance measures, risk statistics as well as highlighting some of the newest ALERTS! that have recently triggered.
Below is a table showing the ALERTS! that are still active.

*Note: Positioning and targets are not shown as this is reserved for members only.
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