As April draws to a close, it almost seems as though we have had two months in one. The widely watched PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ) declined into the April 11 lows and has been trying to rebound from those lows. Most of the major averages are lower for the month except the Dow Transports and Utilities.
With 41% of the S&P 500 reporting as of Thursday, 69% have beaten analysts’ estimates. The first quarter growth at 2.9% is well ahead of what the market was expecting just a few months ago. The big surprises on the plus side last week were Facebook, Inc. (FB) and Apple, Inc. (AAPL). The market also punished quite a few stocks, and I focused on three last Friday.
As I discussed last Thursday, the tech earnings combined with the new highs in NYSE A/D line should be enough to push the S&P 500 at least to the 1900 level in the next month. The extent of the first pullback, which began on Friday, should allow us to determine whether the Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 have actually bottomed out.
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