Which industries do you keep an eye out for in order to get an early sense of market direction or confirmation? In other words, a group of stocks that tends to make a move either before the market does or do not confirm the latest move. Some groups I've seen mentioned are biotechs, airlines, semiconductors. Do you have any favorites?
Well, I think MSFT is big enough to be its own group & I've watched it pull the market the last several days ...
Hmmm...it's interesting you say that because msft is trading near lows of last 2 mos. yet market is at highs...
MSFT comprises over 8% of the Nasdaq 100, so regardless of its relative strength vs. the index -- it still has a significant impact...
Yes, market would be higher but for MSFT. Big M sold off on speculation they would buy Google at an inflated price ... has held the indices back. Obviously I'm bullish ...
Chips and Bios for Nasdaq, Banks for S&P. All three breakout at same time you can get a nice move with follow thru. If say chips and bios are diveraging then moves in index tend to be more choppy and less follow thru. Sometimes you get a break in these sectors with up to a 5 minute lead or more before a move in indexes.