Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Baker’s Dozen of Longs

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Looking at the NASDAQ 100 index and its ETF, shown below, it's not much of a surprise that Apple is bouncing big. After the breakout above resistance (which I've circled in green), both AAPL and QQQ zoomed higher, paused, and then retraced their way all the way back down to the aforementioned line (which now serves as support). Yesterday and today, the market refused to go lower than that line, so when in all likelihood is gaps much higher above it, that line's importance as support will simply be affirmed.

0424-QQQ

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Harbingers of Economic Contraction?

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Data released on Tuesday shows that Home Prices rose, but New Home Sales fell, as shown on the graphs below.

This data goes hand-in-hand with a decline in Existing Home Sales and in the NAHB Housing Market Index, as mentioned in my post of April 19th.

Additionally, Consumer Confidence fell, as shown on the graph below. Since it's a "leading indicator of consumer spending, which accounts for a majority of overall economic activity," it's worth tracking to see if this is a harbinger of economic contraction, or even recession.