For Trading April 16th

Poor Greg Maffei!!

Stocks finish Lower

Today was drag all day long without much conviction to the rallies, even after the lows this morning of -716, we managed a close of -445.41 (1.86%), NASDAQ -122.56 (1.44%), S&P500 -62.70 (2.2%), the Russell -53.36 (4.31%) and DJ Transports -174.46 (2.13%). The market internals were much weaker today thanfor yesterday’s gains. NYSE A/D was 5:1 down and NASDAQ was 3:1 lower. Volume was in line with yesterday. Healthcare was the big winner today with UNH was the biggest mover in either direction +76 DPs with BA recovering a touch +36. On the downside the losers were HD -59, V-58, MCD-42, TRV-40, IBM-36, MMM-34 and JPM -32 DPS. Strength in healthcare was mirrored by weakness again in Energy, financials and materials. The news was terrible with retail sales falling off a cliff -8.7%, Empire State Manufacturing -57 points to -78.2 and NAHB housing index -42 to 30. The only bit of good news was from Governor Cuomo of NY today giving his daily report with several of the numbers seeming to plateau.

Our “open forum” on Discord, which allows me to interact with subscribers and others to allow direct questions and chart opinions on just about any stock, continues to grow with more participants every day. It is informative and allows me to share insights as the market is open and moving. The link is: https://discord.gg/ATvC7YZ and I will be there and active from before the open and all day. It’s a great place to share ideas and gain some insights, and we’ve grown to almost 1900 members. I also did this video titled “How to survive being an options trader and not blow up your account,” over the long weekend. I think it’s very informative as a guide to stock selection and option choices. The link is https://youtu.be/Y7H9RpWfLlo Enjoy!!

Tonight’s closing comment video (new equipment)
https://youtu.be/0Qhm7GjoTzA

SECTORS: Middleby Corp. (MIDD) was the subject of a negative report from Prescience Point Capital to support their short position. This is not really a new story with Citi downgrading it to neutral and lowering their target price from $115 to just $54 last month. The stock is down from $128 in late February to close today $50.23 -3.77 (6.98%). So, why the headline for Greg Maffei? Well, Greg is the CEO, president and Chairman of Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings (LTRPA) and is the owner of roughly 4.6 million shares (97%) of the class B shares (LTRPB). On no news except “trading halted” and “trading resumed” multiple times during the day, the stock closed $4.76 yesterday and opened the day at $4.99 and went on a run, including those 15 or so halts, to hit $134 before coming back to earth and closing $34.69 +29.93, a remarkable 628.78%, and in extended hours is back to $54. At the highs, the stock was up 2788%. So, Greg started off the day with a position worth $21,896,000 saw it grow to $616,400,000 only to be trimmed back to just a scant $159,574,000. So, poor Greg lost roughly just short of a half Billion dollars this afternoon….Clearly a good day, but what a markdown for Poor Greg!

BIOPHARMA: was LOWER with BIIB -6.82, ABBV -1.3, REGN -12.33, ISRG +3.06, MYL -1.00, TEVA -.51, VRTX -7.14, BHC -.86, INCY -.33, ICPT -.91, LABU -2.46 and IBB $115.69 -2.96 (2.49%).

CANNABIS: This group was LOWER with TLRY -.32, CGC -.60, CRON -.15, GWPH +.61, ACB .72 -.03, PYX -.21, NBEV -.03, CURLF -.035, KERN -.31 and MJ $11.35 -.30 (2.58%).

DEFENSE: was LOWER with LMT -7.59, RTX -3.41, GD -4.71, TXT -1.56, NOC -8.79, BWXT -.63, TDY -11.18, and ITA $148.50 -4.65 (3.03%).

RETAIL: was LOWER with the news of JCP talking bankruptcy - .08 (25%) leading the way. M -.45, JWN -1.99, KSS -1.40, DDS -2.68, WMT -.51, TGT -1.93, TJX -1.93, RL -7.00 (9.15%), UAA -.46, LULU +1.32, TPR -1.07, CPRI -1.20 and XRT $33.07 1.33 (3.87%).

FAANG and Big Cap: were LOWER with GOOGL -20.21, AMZN +11.83, AAPL -4.05, FB -2.45, NFLX +11.44, NVDA -5.16, TSLA +3.61, BABA +2.12, BIDU -.72, BA +1.75, CAT -5.40, DIS -3.17 and XLK $86.50 -2.47 (2.78%).

FINANCIALS were LOWER with GS reporting and unlike the rest of the group bottoming early and reversing from a low of $169.15 to close slightly higher on the day @ $178.52 +.29 while all the rest of the group sank lower. JPM -5.20 (5.45%), BAC -1.64 (6.91%), MS -1.95, C -2.79, PNC -7.19 (7.31%), AIG -1.71, TRV -5.85, AXP -5.29 (5.98%) and XLF $21.65 -.98 (4.33%).

OIL, $19.87 -.24. Oil was HIGHER overnight and by the NY open this morning the best it could do was $20.29 and started lower until it fell in the late afternoon to trade 19.20 before a small rally to close just over $19.85. Tonight, it is up $ .54. Stocks were lower with the XLE $32.06 -1.58 (4.7%).

METALS, GOLD: $1,740.20 -28.70. After the recent gains, Gold broke solidly above $1,700 and traded as high as $1788 yesterday. Today was a major move to the downside, trading as low as 1731.00. I am a buyer between 1680-1710.

BITCOIN: closed $6,740 -210. After we traded in the uptrend, I mentioned this weekend that I felt we’d have to test 6750 and today we hit 6550 before turning back up. While I want to add the 350 sold just over a week ago, I want to wait and see some stabilization. We still own 400 GBTC with an average of $8.06. GBTC closed $7.15 -.18 today.

Tomorrow is another day.

CAM