The markets finished the month with a down day. Most major market ETF's were lower after some impressive gains last week. The S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) starts the week down 0.19% after over a 2% gain last week. The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: QQQ) is off to a better start, gaining 0.19% while moving right into an area of technical resistance. The Dow 30 suffered the worst loss of the week so far, losing almost 0.50% so far this week. This was, in part due to Boeing (NYSE: BA) which, due to some bad news, suffered a decline of over 2%.
The gold mining sector (NYSE: GDX) is one of the better performers this week, with gains of 1.35%. The bounce comes after a few weeks of a pullback. This area has likely attracted technical traders who are anticipating support here in the short term. Year to date the gold miners are up over 60%. After such an explosive move, it is likely that many, who missed the initial move will try and pick a spot to enter.
The biotech sector (NASDAQ: IBB) has also started off strong with gains of 1.30%. The move comes after a slow rally has continuously attracted more and more buyers. In the short term buyers remain in control, but year to date the biotech sector remains down over 17%.
Lastly, oil (NYSE: USO) started the week with a pullback (0.98%) after many weeks in an uptrend. While there is no way to anticipate that the trend has ended here, airline stock traders seem to be hinting that lower prices are in store for crude. Ever since last years decline of over 40%, oil has rallied this year gaining back 8% so far. Investors applaud the slow rally and have found confidence again in the once volatile oil space. At least for now traders are keeping their cool.
Going forward this week we have ISM Manufacturing numbers and the Fed's beige book. This is followed Thursday by Crude Oil inventories, and Natural Gas numbers. Finally, Friday may be a volatile end to the week as the market will digest the unemployment rate which is expected to show an improvement in the number of those unemployed.