Palantir Hit by Trump and Algos, but It's a Time for Picking Not Pessimism

It was another choppy market session on Wednesday but the senior indexes managed small gains even though market breadth was negative. The Magnificent Seven and a few other big-cap technology names gained, while the Russell 2000 IWM pulled back 0.35%.

There continues to be good speculative and stock-picking action. There was a long list of stocks moving up more than 10% and over 400 new 12-month highs. The problem is that intraday volatility is picking up, and there is a lot of random noise.

Late in the day Wednesday, a headline hit that President Trump plans to cut the budget of the Department of Defense. This hit shares of Palantir Technologies PLTR, which pulled back 10% from its all-time highs and caused related algorithmic selling.

The market is skittish about Trump-related headlines, but so far, the high level of pessimism has not been warranted. Technical conditions remain strong, and complaints about valuation do not have much impact.

We have earnings reports rolling in that are creating some big moves, but they have little impact on overall market conditions. This remains a market for stock pickers rather than market timers.

Have a good evening. I’ll see you Thursday.

At the time of publication, Rev Shark had no positions in any securities mentioned.