Stocks Step Back On Iran Escalation Fears: Figs, Wabtec, Marex In Focus

0:02Ken Shreve:The 2026 Chevy Equinox is more than an SUV. It's your Sunday tailgate and your parking lot snack bar. Your lucky jersey, your chairs, and your big cooler fit perfectly in your even bigger cargo space. And when it's go time, your 11.3-inch diagonal touchscreen's got the playbook, the playlist, and the tech to stay a step ahead. It's more than an SUV. It's your Equinox. Chevrolet. Together, let's drive.

0:40Ken Shreve:good afternoon everyone and welcome to stock market today for wednesday thursday april 23rd it's alissa quorum here and stocks taking a bit of a step back on fresh iran headlines joining me now to discuss the action and some stocks of note from today's session is my colleague ken shreve Ken, what do you have for us today? Yeah, Ali, good to see you. Yeah, we'd always find three stocks to talk about no matter what the market's doing. So I want to take a look at FIGS. I'm not sure we've talked about FIGS on SMT. It's been a little while. Yeah, it's been a little while. F-I-G-S, nursing apparel provider.

1:20Also want to take a look at Wabtec, which tried to break out recently, came down to its 50-day moving average and went back above a buy point today, WAB, and also Marex, M-R-X, exchange operator.

1:37Ken Shreve:Sounds like a plan. We'll get to those stocks. But first, as always, let's take a look at the major indexes. The Nasdaq today finishing down about nine-tenths of a percent off lows. We'll have to take a look at an intraday chart. Meanwhile, the S &P 500 down four-tenths of a percent, also nicely off lows of the day. Meanwhile, the Dow on the day down four-tenths of a percent, two closing off lows, and the Russell down around four-tenths of a percent. So we had a little bit of a test intraday, Ken, on some fresh headlines. And then there was a little bit of a dispute, it seems like, of the reporting initially.

2:25Ken Shreve:So some back and forth action. We'll go to the intraday chart there. I'm on a one-minute time frame. I'll go to a five-minute time frame. So you can really see where things sort of picked up or, you know, the selling picked up intraday. But we were able to recover. Your thoughts on the action? Well, yeah, we had a big downdraft sort of in the middle of the day. There was a report apparently, and it was refuted, there was a report that the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, a conservative gentleman, resigned. Apparently, he was one of Iran's chief negotiators, which was viewed as a negative. But Iran apparently refuted that.

3:13So the market shrugged that off. And then there were reports that President Trump had directed the U.S. Navy to just destroy any Iran boats that were laying mines. And so it was just one headline or another. And it just resulted in oil prices running up to$98 a barrel. They eventually settled back. At last check, they were up 4 % to 96.50. So oil prices started dictating the action again. We talked about oil being up three days in a row during yesterday's video, but you can see it rallied again. But overall, the Dow was down 3, 4 tenths of a percent today. There was a lot of damage in the Dow today with CRM.

3:58The software sell-off really took full force again today. IBM had just not a great response to earnings. So there was a lot of damage in the Dow. American Express sold off on earnings. Some not great responses to earnings today, but I have to say, you know, to see the Dow respond the way it did, you know, closed up near its high. This was a very resilient performance. It came down, touched the 10-day moving average. So, I mean, this was another strong performance for the market. NASDAQ closed in the bottom half of its range, but to see it close off lows, considering all the damage we saw in software stocks today, I would have to call this another resilient performance for the market today.

4:50Ken Shreve:Totally agree, Ken. And I'm seeing a closing range of 50%. Right in the middle. At least, yeah, at least of the last check on this market surge chart. And I think typically we view supporting action in that 40 % closing range or better. Yeah. So, you know, we'll take it. Yeah, yeah. And again, you know, there was the software sell-off was quite sharp today. Like I said, this, yeah, IGV was down more than five, almost six percent today. So that was quite a rally off lows for software stocks. Everybody was calling for the bottom in software. And certainly they were making a good case for a bottom.

5:41But then IBM came out with this earnings report. And that certainly called into question. although IGV came down and made a stand at that 50-day moving average. So maybe a bottom has been put in, but we'll have to see. But I would say, especially for the Dow, I mean, there was a lot of damage in the Dow today. Even Microsoft had a tough day. So lots of selling in the Dow today, and to only see the index down, what, four-tenths of a percent, pretty impressive.

6:14Ken Shreve:Totally agree. Let's take a look at the S &P 500. And let's check out the closing range here for this decline. It looks even better. Yeah, even better at 61%. So even though there was a lot of price discovery here today, it seems like there was definitely a positive with where we closed, not too much damage. edge. But what should traders be thinking about, Ken, from here when it comes to new positions? We have earnings season. That's a big factor, right, to contend with. And we have the market at highs. We've come up a lot. And now we're seeing a little bit of a pickup again in that volatility.

7:00Ken Shreve:Let's take a quick look at the VIX. It's up, but not nearly where it was, Ken, a couple weeks ago. Yeah, it's definitely getting trickier now. There's no question about it. I mean, just even with the leaderboard model portfolio that Dave Chung and I manage, we tried putting on a new position today and it didn't really work out. We tried putting on a a minor tech resources. And the breakout looked good in the morning, T-E-C-K. But you can see it kind of faded and gave back a lot of its gain and closed below the buy point. So it looked good. And it was disappointing that it closed below the entry here.

7:57But that was one stock that looked interesting this morning. But even during the day when the market was still OK, before the selling started picking up the pace, it really is getting tougher to find stocks that are still in range. You kind of look through screens and a lot of stocks have been running for some time now. So you're dealing with a market with a lot of extended stocks, a lot of stocks that are just way too far past proper entries. You've had so many stocks that have broken out to new highs that have been running and running and running. You have many that are approaching the 20 % profit zone.

8:34So it's getting very, very tricky to find new buying opportunities. So you've got to have to be patient. So looking to put new money to work here, it's getting challenging. So you almost want to kind of wait for pullbacks at this point. The time to be putting money to work was back in early April when we had the follow-through day. So there are still stocks setting up, but they've just been kind of dilly-dallying around the pivots and some of the relative strength lines are lagging. So it's just a little more challenging right now, even though you have the indexes holding strong up near highs right now.

9:17the environment's just gotten a little more difficult just because so many stocks have been running for a while without much consolidating in the market. Yeah.

9:29Ken Shreve:Well, maybe that is what we'll get from here. We have a little bit of a pause taking shape. So we'll have to see if we can get some new add-on entries to form in some of those winning stocks. Yep, that's definitely true. I want to also just touch on RSP. You know, that was, you know, the breath in the market today. We were just kind of complaining about the breath in the market yesterday during the up session. But RSP, you can see, was actually had a pretty good day. It closed off lows with the S &P 500. But you can see it was basically flat and unchanged. So on a day where the S &P, you know, lost some ground, I think the breath was, the positive breath was definitely seen in RSP today.

10:21So, you know, pretty good breath underneath the surface. In fact, advancers, excuse me, decliners only had a very, very slight edge over advancers on the NYSE today. It was almost evenly split, just a small edge over advancers on the NYSE today. So breadth was pretty good on the NYSE. On the NASDAQ QQQE, it was about 2 to 1 negative. So a little worse on the NASDAQ, but not too bad. Great.

10:57Ken Shreve:All right. Any other thoughts on the broader market before we take a look at some individual names? I think you have to call it a win. I think you have to call it a win for the bulls today, Ali, to get that close off lows. I think we had a feeling for what the whippy market can feel like today when you get some volatile headlines. And it was a little scary there when we get that whoosh down on the Iran headline earlier in the day. But, you know, it was a big intraday drop, but a quick recovery. And so we will see. But I think overall it was, you know, a positive day for the bulls here. Yeah. And as we often like to say, it's the market's reaction to the news that is critical context for us.

11:56Ken Shreve:And the market has been taking all of this news in stride in the month of April. All right, let's take a look. Today we helped a latte for Sam coffee shop get an insurance quote simply and easily and made sure a floral delivery van was able to make someone's day. We're the Hartford with decades of experience insuring millions of unique small businesses. When it comes to your small business insurance. Thank you. One size absolutely does not fit all. Get a quote or find an agent today at the Hartford dot com slash small business. At FIGS, Ken, we've got uniforms for the medical industry, and this has been making a nice comeback in recent quarters.

12:46Ken Shreve:And the bottom line growth has just been fantastic. Give me your thoughts on the recent action. Yeah, no, this is really a good-looking base setting up here. And that response to earnings when they reported fourth-quarter results in March was very, very strong. Obviously, it had a nice gap up. And then the way the stock has consolidated after the gap up has been really, really nice. I mean, it just came down to the 50-day moving average and found support here. and it's just a nice little base setting up here. Now, it almost has the look of a double bottom pattern. You know, you had two legs down there that you're highlighting there and maybe a 16 pivot, but we're still kind of looking at it as just kind of a consolidation here.

13:42So it's, you know, as it moves higher here, it could try to, you know, break out over another little high here, But it could just kind of keep moving higher here and approach that recent high of 1748. But if we swing over and just take a look at the weekly chart, you know, I'm still looking at it as just a kind of a base building stock here. And in fact, you know, even, you know, this week, maybe you could have a handle forming here. So by Friday, by tomorrow, I think this probably might be recognized as a cup with handle base. So we'll look at the high from last week as the handle area here. So either way, it's a great base setting up.

14:28And the fundamentals here at FIGS as a provider of nursing uniforms, fundamentals are strong here. And it's just a great base taking shape here. So we like to see good fundamentals and good technicals. and you have both here with FIGS. Small cap company, but very liquid. Average daily volume, just below 4 million shares a day, and good growth looking ahead. So like the setup here, and we're still on a nice uptrend here. So these are the types of stocks you want to be looking at here. So looks to me like a cup with handle base could be in place by the end of this week. So good one for the watch list.

15:14Ken Shreve:And I think this is also a really great visual example of the historical research that we've found that stocks often will follow their earnings. So you can see in the 2024 timeframe when you were seeing a lot of red ink, the stock was chopping sideways, underperforming the S &P 500. But when the company started turning around that triple digit earnings growth, that's really when you started seeing this uptrend take shape and that outperformance come into play. So that's why a lot of times we love looking at the technicals and the fundamentals together, because when you have the stars align, that can be very powerful.

15:57It's an excellent point. And you could also see the earnings line too, that green line that is kind of following the price movement. The earnings line started to kind of trend lower as the earnings were declining and as the stock was kind of moving sideways and headed lower. And then the earnings started to turn when the stock started to turn. And so as the earnings started to kick into gear, the stock started to kick into gear. So everything was just kind of moving right in tandem. them. So yeah, excellent, excellent point. That's why we have the earnings line and something that David Ryan talks about a lot when he's on IBD Live every Tuesday.

16:35He always wants to see that green earnings line on a sharp uptrend, wants to see those earnings really, you know, kicking into gear and, you know, really in a nice uptrend.

16:48Ken Shreve:Indeed. Let's move on over to Wabtec. This is in the Transportation Equipment Manufacturing Group. And it broke out a couple of weeks ago with a nice gap up, Ken. But I think arguably today's action makes the stock look even better. After that attempted breakout, the stock pulled back to the 50-day line. So I think this second chance setup, in my opinion, actually looks better than it did the first time around. Yeah, I think shake out. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It was kind of disappointing action because it was really it was a really a nice a nice a nice initial breakout. But it was like it was a two day breakout.

17:29And then, you know, it just it didn't it didn't work. And it quickly came down to the to the to the 50 day moving average. But I particularly like the volume over the past two days in this in this stock. It it came down to the 50 day moving average. Yesterday, it bounced with some nice volume, and then volume picked up the pace again today, and it reclaimed that prior entry, and then it poked above some of these recent highs over the past three or four days, and it went above all these moving averages. So it's back in a buy zone today. So I could see why some people would be nibbling back and buying back into a position here.

18:12So I thought it was, frankly, a bullish technical move for WebTech today. I like the volume. And it's just a good example of how a stock can come down. This was a volatile retest. There's no question about it. I mean, there was volume when the stock came down and tested the 50-day. It wasn't great price action, but it did find support. And again, the volume the past two days was pretty impressive. So transportation sector has been doing pretty well. I know Dave Chung in the big picture yesterday, the transportation sector was hit particularly hard in recent days because somehow Avis Budget, C-A-R, is in the Dow Jones Transport Index.

18:58I'm not sure why. This has been a meme stock and seems like a strange component for the Dow Jones Transport Index. But you can see the stock has just been absolutely obliterated the past two days. It just seems like a strange component for the Dow Jones Transport. But it kind of skewed the index. But anyway, the Dow Jones.

19:24Ken Shreve:No surprise, though, honestly, to see this come crashing down after going parabolic, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's been a meme stock, and it's a heavily shorty stock. And, you know, I mean, just crazy. But transports overall, I mean, there have been a lot of great stocks, whether it's J.B. Hunt or XPO. There's been a lot of great performing transport stocks. FedEx has been doing well. So, you know, broad-based strength throughout the transport sector. So, you know, WAPTEC is, they're big in freight, transit, you know, the rail, providing equipment to all sorts of areas in transportation. So, yeah, I think this one looks good.

20:07Reclaimed a buy point today and back in a buy zone here.

20:12Ken Shreve:Let's go to Marex. A powerful breakout of a big cup with handle base in the late March, early April timeframe. frame ran up 20 % very quickly, pulled back a reasonable amount, I would say, and now clearing a little trend line. So perhaps an opportunity to add to existing positions or how do you view the action, Ken? Well, I just I think this one has the look of a market leader and I wouldn't For new buyers, I wouldn't be a buyer right here, but I'm going to watch this one because I think it's a newer issue, and I think it has the chance to be a real true stock market leader. Not only because of its fundamentals, it's a newer issue, and I just like the power that this one is showing, especially during its latest uptrend.

21:13uptrend. Look at the volume that it has shown as it has powered higher over the past several weeks. If you go back to the daily chart, it has showed the ANTS indicator, which is the power, the volume power behind the recent move. And now the pullback has been so orderly. It's just been a pullback to the 10-day moving average, and it's already finding support. So it really made no effort to come down to the 21-day line. So it's just been a very bullish pullback here. I mean, it could come down to the 21-day line. That would be a very normal pullback, and I probably would expect it at some point.

21:54So I'm going to just keep this on my own watch list because, again, I think it just has the potential to be a market leader here. I think it probably, after the run, is we'll eventually pull back a little more and form a good base. But like the fundamentals here, it's basically a market-making, execution, clearing firm for exchange-traded derivatives, commodities, and things like that. Basically an exchange operator. But again, newer issue. I've seen the CEO interviewed several times on CNBC, CNBC, Sharp guy. So, yeah, just like the way this one has pulled back after a really move. I mean, it's been a very tame pullback so far.

22:43So wouldn't be surprised to see it consolidate a little more here. Would like to see a base form, but I'm going to just keep watching this and look for a more palatable entry.

22:54Ken Shreve:Great. Okay, let's check in on some of the notable earnings out after the closing bell here really quickly. The Intel, look at this, Ken, shares up 15%. The chip sector has another big earnings report. Yeah, I mean, look at this. This is almost a pullback like Merrick's, right? I mean, just a massive breakout here and just a quick pullback to the 10-day moving average. And here Intel is up 15%. Pretty incredible. You know, NVIDIA has taken a stake in Intel, maybe$2 billion, I think, several weeks ago. So I haven't had a chance to look at the report yet, but a 15 % move, pretty incredible. Okay.

23:46Ken Shreve:Also reporting after the bell in the tech sector. MXL, yeah, this is chip. Even bigger move. I mean, this is just... 28%. 28%. That's it. And look at the move. Here's a stock that went from$20 to$35 in, what, two weeks' time? Yeah. Yeah. And now it's up 27%. Okay. Incredible. This is what I'm talking about, Allie. This is a market that is pretty incredible. I mean, this is an incredible three-week move. And now we know why these chip stocks have been just going like a gangbuster. So I'd be interested to see what Max Linear had to say. Obviously, their outlook was something special. But you can see their annual earnings, I mean, just exploding with growth.

24:44So obviously, they upped their outlook pretty significantly, I would assume.

24:48Ken Shreve:And the estimates were all ready for an acceleration of that triple-digit growth. So here again, that point about earnings, look at the earnings growth here. This already had three quarters of triple-digit earnings growth accelerating under its belt. And now, yeah, we'll have to take a closer look at the report, but seems like it must have been pretty good. Yeah, pretty, pretty, pretty incredible. I know, you know, Ed and I were on IBD Live this morning and then, you know, next week, not only do we have, you know, several magnificent seven stocks and they're also, you know, the hyperscalers, but we've got, you know, we've got Sandisk and Western Digital and Seagate and we've got a whole slew of leaderboard stocks and some more, you know, fiber optics reports.

25:44I mean, next week is going to be so pivotal for the market. And I mean, if we get more earnings reports like Intel and MaxLinear, I mean, we could be headed higher. We'll have to see. But it's going to be a noteworthy week for sure. And I'm wondering, you know, when Micron reported earnings last month in March, because Micron was one of the first, they keep a different fiscal year. We remember Micron reported unbelievably strong numbers with a great outlook and, you know, the stock whooshed lower and it recovered losses, but it still ended down, you know, 4 % or so on the day. And we're saying, boy, the numbers were so great and the outlook was just so far beyond expectations.

26:32I'm just wondering what on earth is SanDisk and Western Digital and Seagate going to have to say to, you know, to fuel additional gains. So we'll have to see because they're going to be saying very similar things to what Micron said last month. But we'll have to see.