PreMarket Prep Looks At The Week That Was

Benzinga's PreMarket Prep airs every morning from 8-9 a.m. ET. During that fast-paced, highly informative hour, traders and investors tune in to get the major news of the day, the catalysts behind those moves and the corresponding price action for the upcoming session.

On any given day, the show will cover at least 20 stocks determined by co-hosts Joel Elconin and Dennis Dick along with producer Spencer Israel.

The adage of “Sell Rosh Hashanah, Buy Yippur” worked this week... kind of. The bulk of this week's gains in the S&P 500 index came on Monday, the actual Day of Atonement, instead of Tuesday after the holiday officially ended.

Although the index was slightly red on Tuesday, it did post solid gains on Wednesday and Thursday and was poised for a rally on Friday as long as the Street wasn't spooked by the jobs report, which it has all but ignored during the pandemic.

On Thursday evening, the gameplan for the bulls was to push the market through the nearly matching highs from Wednesday and Thursday (3,384 and 3,388) and return the S&P 500 to the 3,400 handle for the first time since Sept. 15.

Or, at least, that was the plan.

One thing we preach on PreMarket Prep is that news can dominate price action over technical analysis. In other words, you can have the greatest bullish or bearish technical setup ever, and it can get obliterated by news.

Perfect Example

As of 12:54 a.m. ET Friday, the index was meandering just below unchanged at 3,362. And then came the news that President Trump and his wife Melania tested positive for the coronavirus.

In a matter of 42 minutes, while the shocking news was being digested, the index cascaded all the way to 3,300.25, nearly a 2% swoon. A move of that magnitude is not that unusual for the entire session, but it’s rare to see one develop that quickly.

Wrapping Up The Week

After a jittery premarket session, the "buy the dip” crowd sprung into action, as the index shrugged off the disappointing jobs report and the overnight Trump news. Just after the open, it hit support above the premarket low and mounted a 40-point rally.

All told, the index closed down 0.96% for the session, but was up from the open to close.

PreMarket Prep co-host Dennis Dick summed up the week in a few words: “A week of chop, the fade trade continues for now, buy the dip and sell the rip,” a likely scenario that may persist until the election is over.

Stock Spotlight

Rocket Mortgage RKT bulls had to be licking their chops for a two-day move in Friday’s session after its monster 14% gain Thursday on much heavier than average volume. The move was instigated by the news that the company had formed a new partnership with Realtor.com.

Just as the issue was laboring at the $20 level and seemed destined to head for a test of the IPO low ($17.50), the news turned the tide. As a result, shorts had to scramble to cover and future longs were forced to chase the issue in a rising market instead of sellers coming to them.

In Friday’s session, the issue opened lower but immediately found support a few cents lower at $21.25 and battled back to end in the green by at $23. Friday marked RKT’s highest close since Sept. 15 ($23.36).

Guests For Next Week's PreMarket Prep

• Monday (8:35 a.m. ET) Chris Camillo - Host of Dumb Money
• Tuesday (8:35 a.m. ET) Nic Chahine - Founder of Sellspreads.com
• Wednesday (8:35 a.m. ET) Ivan Feinseth - Partner and CIO Tigress Financial Partners
• Thursday (8:35 a.m. ET) Michael Episcope - Origin Investments
• Friday (8:45 a.m. ET) Jason Raznick - Founder and CEO of Benzinga