The stock market fell Monday as late-year selling washed over the exchanges, taking many recent big-gainers down. But several top stocks moved off their lows for the day. Retail stocks, in particular Boot Barn (BOOT) and Ross Stores (ROST), swam against the market’s tide and showed solid gains.
The Nasdaq fell the most, dropping 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P were off about 0.6%. The small-cap Russell fell 0.3%.
Volume rose on both major exchanges, as big funds and individual investors moved to square their accounts and book profits. NYSE turnover rose 31% from Friday’s session, while Nasdaq trade grew 13%.
Stock Market: Retailing Rules
A handful of retail names ignored the early stock sell-off, bucking the bearish trend.
Boot and work clothing retailer Boot Barn (BOOT), featured over the weekend in Stock Spotlight, rose 3.3%. Boot Barn stock has a highest possible Composite Rating of 99, and is ranked No. 1 in its industry group.
Boot Barn broke out of a short cup with handle above a 37.72 buy point on Oct. 25, a day before reporting a 62% Q2 EPS gain that beat analysts estimates handily. A recent three-weeks-tight formation provides a potential alternate entry of 44.87 for the stock.
Sports and yogawear specialty retailer Lululemon Athletica (LULU) gained 0.4%. Lululemon stock, which is on IBD’s Leaderboard as a half position, had a rough patch in mid-December when it dived below its 10-day moving average line, sending a sell signal to skittish investors. But in recent days, it has regained the 10-day average and remains well above both its 50-day and 200-day averages, a sign of underlying demand for the stock.
Clothing marketer Columbia Sportswear (COLM), which was added to the IBD 50 list the day after Christmas, edged up 0.2%. The stock has been in a lengthy consolidation pattern, moving mostly along the bottom half for much of the time. But it gapped up 7% on huge volume on Dec. 18, and has since built a tight formation in the upper half of its consolidation below a 109.84 buy point. The 42 Relative Strength Rating is a glaring weak spot.
Other retailers showing trend-bucking gains for the day included big box discounter Costco (COST), which added 0.4% and remains in a flat base below a 307.20 buy point; clothing discounter Ross Stores, a 1.5% gainer in a renewed breakout from a flat base above a 114.93 buy point; and Target (TGT), which initially rose but dipped 0.3% late. Target stock remains extended above a consolidation pattern with a 90.49 buy point.
Among Dow stocks, Apple (AAPL) was Monday’s big winner, gaining 0.6%, reversing an early morning decline. It’s now well extended from a flat base with a 221.47 buy point. On Friday, Loup Ventures Managing Partner Gene Munster predicted Apple would be the “top performing FAANG stock in 2020.”
Others among the FAANG stock market complex didn’t fare as well. Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX) and Alphabet‘s Google (GOOGL) all fell 1% or more.
Apple was one of just a few bright spots for the Dow, however, which was awash in a sea of red ink. Leading the way down were Procter & Gamble (PG), down 1.3%; IBM (IBM), off 1.8%; and Disney (DIS), lower by 1.3%.
Among exchange trade funds, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY), a bellwether index for the IBD 50 list of top growth stocks, fell 0.9%.