Nasdaq, S&P 500 Extend Run To Record Highs; Corning, J.B Hunt, FedEx In Focus

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0:39Ken Shreve:Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Stock Market Today for Thursday, April 16th. It's Alyssa Coram here and green on the screen once again today as the S &P 500 and Nasdaq notably extend their gains into new high territory. We'll break down where we stand in the market climate and also take a look at a couple of stocks. Joining me to do just that is my colleague, Ken Shreve. Ken, over to you. Thank you very much, Ali. Boy, I've seen a lot of transport stocks acting very well. Nice earnings report from J.B. Hunt Transport Services, trucking stock, J.B.H.T. Also want to take a look at FedEx in a big cost-cutting campaign, FDX.

1:22That is setting up beautifully in this market. And then let's take a look at a fiber optic stock. Came down, retested a buy area today, GLW.

1:33Ken Shreve:All right. We will do that. So is it safe to say that the transports are moving, Ken? They are moving. They are moving with a lot of other stocks. This market can't be stopped 12 in a row for the NASDAQ today. Unbelievable. Yeah, it is unbelievable. I was trying to make a cheesy transportation joke there. But on we go to the major indexes. I got it. I got it. Here we go. Transport's moving. All right. Low hanging fruit there. All right. Here's a look at the NASDAQ. Another day of gains here. And taking a look at the chart, up about four-tenths of a percent. Meanwhile, the S &P 500 on the day, up about a quarter of a percent.

2:14Ken Shreve:The Dow, meanwhile, quarter of a percent gain here. and the Russell 2000 small cap index eking out a gain of its own, Ken. So like you said, let's talk about the NASDAQ a little here because this is a very impressive win streak. We're in new highs. And, you know, what could get in the way of this momentum here? Yeah, you know, this is pretty incredible. I'm going to have to double check with our market research director, Justin Nielsen, but I heard some rumblings today that this 12-session win streak for the NASDAQ is the best or longest since 2009. So that is really, really something. I'm going to have to do the math, but that's almost, well, not quite two decades, but that's quite a long time.

3:07So quite a win streak for the NASDAQ composite. But this is kind of a situation where you wonder, you know, do you want to chase the market here? Because you certainly have. What's interesting is that even though the market has been running so much, you know, 12 straight up days, that even when you look at the market today, there were still quite a few stocks that were actionable, quite a few stocks that were still viable. And that's really the most incredible thing about this market, because, you know, when the market has been running as much as it has, because when When you look at the low for the NASDAQ at 2690, you're talking about a really significant percentage gain for the NASDAQ composite off its low.

3:56And while it's true that there are a lot of extended stocks out there, a lot of stocks that are way too far past proper buy points to consider entering at this point. like I said even today and you know stocks that we're going to look at today there are still you know quite a few stocks out there that are still you know breaking out and are still in the early stages of moves here so that is that is compelling and but you know you still want to be careful you don't want to you don't want to chase in this environment you still want to be you know still want to be looking at stocks that are you know setting up and kind of revving their engines and just getting ready to get going.

4:37So we're still finding a fair number of stocks like that in different industries. But again, when you run up this much, especially for the NASDAQ, you're probably going to see a pullback at some point. But really impressed with the broadening leadership. Obviously, the fiber optics and the contract manufacturers, the semiconductors have been been doing great. But, you know, transports, you know, it's just been a lot of other areas of the market that have been doing well in addition.

5:13Ken Shreve:Yeah. And I do have some of those factoids for you, Ken, from the Dow Jones Market Data Team. So for the NASDAQ composite, rising for the 12th straight trading day, this is the largest 12-day point gain on record. It's also the largest 12-day percentage gain since April 20th, 2020. That was a big April move over a 12-day period. And then this is the longest winning streak since July 23rd, 2009. And that also was a period when the index rose for 12 straight trading days. Very good. Fun stuff. Some fun, fun facts there. All right. So in terms of what we want to see from here, ideally on the index level and individual stocks, I know you've been talking about in recent days the potential for distribution.

6:15Ken Shreve:Obviously, we've gone up a lot. I mean, if we're breaking records here, Ken, right? I mean, that just puts the move into perspective. You know, could we have a bit of a pause here? Could we have a bit of a pullback potentially? Hopefully, investors have been steadily adding exposure to take advantage of this huge shift. But I mean, I think if you go back to even just the follow through day last Wednesday, at that point, you could have said, oh, well, we've already gone a lot. We could we could pull back and look what happened since. Right. So eventually we will get some sort of positive pullback.

6:58Ken Shreve:But right now, momentum is in the bull camp. Yes, yes, indeed. And, you know, with the NASDAQ, it's really hard to see where support levels are at this point. You know, you normally look at short-term moving averages, the 10-day, 21-day, 50-day, and there's really, you know, there's not that many to find here. They're quite a ways below where the NASDAQ is currently trading. So, I mean, the NASDAQ would have to pull back quite a bit to get down to the levels that you're highlighting here. So, you know, it's possible it could come down that far. I mean, to me, that would be a pretty steep pullback.

7:41So we'll see. But when you come up really far, really, really fast, you would expect to see a pullback. But again, if we can see the pullback in light volume, that would be ideal. Obviously, you can see plenty of heavy volume or higher volume as we've come up off the bottom. So we'll look to just see if we can get some lower volume behind the declines. And again, if we see some higher volume, what we call distribution, that's not the end of the world. We've made it past that three-day window after the April 8th follow-through day for the S &P 500. So distribution days at this point aren't going to be a big deal.

8:23But if they start to cluster, if we see several over a few days' time, that would be a problem. But certainly the action in leading growth stocks has been quite good. And so we'll see what the pullback looks like when we see it. But really, really great action.

8:40Ken Shreve:Yeah, very bullish. OK, moving on, we'll just get some quick thoughts on the other major indexes while we're here. Ken? What do you think? Yeah, I mean, the S &P 500, not 12 days up in a row. That only had just one little tiny down session. But the same sort of situation. Moving averages are still quite a ways below where the S &P 500 is trading. But same situation. You know, we'll see a round number there, 7 ,000, not very far below where the S &P is trading. But again, we'll just kind of wait, wait, wait for the pullback here and see what it looks like. But really, the price and volume here on the S &P 500, not that much different at all from the NASDAQ.

9:26So tremendous, tremendous move off lows. Just a huge, huge percentage gain. The breadth in the market today, I did want to mention, maybe not surprising. It was pretty much even winners versus losers, pretty much evenly matched. So in the breath yesterday with the nice percentage gains that we saw, it was a little disappointing yesterday. But overall, you know, not too bad. So pretty similar look here to the S &P 500 to the NASDAQ. But that's just kind of funny. One little down day for the S &P 500. Exactly. 11 up days out of 12.

10:08Ken Shreve:And Ken, we better pick up the pace or you're going to be late to leaderboard tour card. It's my fault. I keep asking you these follow-up questions here. So let's quickly go to IYT and then we'll do the three stocks. Yes, very encouraging to see the transports acting well. I did pick two transport stocks today to talk about because you still hear some occasional rumblings about the health of the economy. And it's just encouraging to see the transports acting so well here. We did have a nice earnings report from J.B. Hunt today. and we'll talk about that one a little bit. But IYT is a nice ETF that broke out today.

10:49So I just wanted to highlight this ETF. This is a nice little cup with handle breakout for IYT. Still sitting in that blue shaded area. So this is FedEx is a top holding here that we're going to look at in just a little bit.

11:03Ken Shreve:Experience a membership that backs your business journey with American Express Business Platinum. When you pay with membership rewards points for all or part of an eligible flight booked with a qualifying airline through Amex Travel, you can get 35 % of those points back, up to 1 million points back per calendar year. American Express Business Platinum. There's nothing like it. Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com slash business dash platinum. But let's start with JB Hunt in the... Yes. Yeah, great. Let's go for it. Great. So up 6 % today. Go ahead. Up 6 % today and closed a little bit off highs, but you can see volume rolled into the stock today.

11:48It was a positive response to earnings. This was a breakout today. And sellers did knock the stock a little bit off highs, but it did close above this 236 pivot, 236 entry point, looks like to me here. So it closed in a buy zone. This is just a big trucking company. Anytime you're driving on the freeway, you see the J.B. Hunt big rigs all over the country. So nice annual earnings estimates here. It doesn't have the revenue growth that we usually like to see, but nice earnings estimates here and a nice breakout for J.B. Hunt transport today. So, you know, again, an actionable stock. We like to see stocks breaking out to new highs when the market's in a nice confirmed uptrend.

12:38So good action in this stock today and a group that ranks in the top 20 % or so of our industry group rankings. So pretty good day for the stock.

12:51Ken Shreve:And FedEx. Let's go there, too. Yeah, FedEx has made a nice move, participated in that transport rally today and a little breakout of a downtrend today. They reported earnings recently. This is a company that has already saved about$4 billion as part of a major cost-cutting campaign. They have got about another billion to go in their current fiscal year, 2026. So you can see the market has been very encouraged by the belt tightening and the cost-cutting that this company has been involved in over the past several months. So this is just a good base setting up here. Probably got an early entry today with this little mini breakout from a downtrend, but this is a stock that is setting up in a base.

13:38So we'll continue to see if it can continue to approach that prior high here. And 392.86 is the pivot here, but just a good large cap stock here, setting up and holding support at the 50-day moving average. So we like to see these bases form as the stock is holding support at a key level here. So we could swing to the weekly chart and just see what a good base looks like as it's setting up right along the 10-week moving average here. Relative strength line is looking pretty good as it sits near highs. And I think FedEx is looking pretty good in the transportation sector as well.

14:21Ken Shreve:Yes. Okay, let's round things out with a look at Corning. Tigger here, GLW, full disclosure. I do own a position in the stock. Nice little reversal at the 10-day moving average today, Ken. Yeah, we talked about this one, one of the first stocks we talked about on IBD Live today. And I think this is what's interesting. This is, you know, it's just tracked in the electronic miscellaneous products group, but definitely a fiber optic player. They do fiber optic cables and connectors. So all these AI processors that are in these data centers, this is what is connecting the AI processors. So Corning is a big, big player in the AI data centers.

15:08And just like how it broke out recently, and then this was just a nice kind of pullback to that 162.10 entry. Look at how it just came down to that 10-day moving average. which buyers came in and supported the stock at the 10-day line. And it just took the perfect retest of that 162 entry. And that 160 level, it found support. So this one still looks like it's in a buy zone here. And fundamentals are really solid at Corning. Again, you've got great annual earnings estimates. And a lot of these fiber optic companies, The growth runway looks very strong for several quarters in a row. So Corning is just a big, big liquid, large cap name.

15:54And these companies are very well positioned for growth. So Corning looks good as well as do a lot of other stocks in this group, a very, very strong industry group in the market.

16:08Ken Shreve:All right. Well, there's always more to discuss. But luckily today, there is that opportunity for the audience to hear more from you, Ken, and the leaderboard team in this quarter's leaderboard scorecard webinar. So that is happening very soon. Very soon. In about six minutes, 4.30 Eastern over on leaderboard.investors.com. If you are a member, you can click that link to join the webinar. So I know you're running over there, Ken, and we hope you have a good show. I know there's a lot to discuss with the leaderboard team. So that'll be great. Good stuff. Thanks again, Ken. And thanks everyone for tuning in.

16:54Ken Shreve:That is it from us for today. Check out Leaderboard Scorecard and we will see you right back here tomorrow.

17:07Thank you.

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