Earnings Reports Cause Wild Price Swings

The markets have spent the first part of the week surging back from last week's aggressive selloff. Tuesday the S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) added over 2% thanks to strong rebounds in names like Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) and the banks. The SPY still officially closed below the 200-day moving average, but a rapid recovery seems to have pushed the bears away for now.

The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: QQQ) also surged higher this week so far as the big name tech stocks saw another round of buying at these discounted levels. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is reporting strong earnings and a beat on subscriber numbers also helped the overall bounce from the 200-day moving average.

Healthcare (NYSE: XLV) has been a strong sector this week thanks to earnings reports from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) as well as United Healthcare (NYSE: UNH). Adding over 2.5% on Tuesday alone, the healthcare stocks recovered just about half of the losses suffered over the last two weeks.

Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB), which have suffered 30 days of straight declines, saw a bottom-picking attempt by buyers this week. Tuesday the XHB popped 2.25% on decent trading volume thanks to a note from an analyst saying that this discounted move is a good entry point. Homebuilders have been rocked by higher costs, taxes, and higher interest rates.

Gold and Gold Mining stocks (NYSE: GLD) took a break from their quick pop last week. So far this week the price of gold as well as the gold miners (NYSE: GDX) have pulled back slightly as traders wait to see if another decline is on its way for the markets.

Finally, the transports (NYSE: IYT) have added over 2% this week so far thanks to strong earnings from CVX (NYSE: CVX) and an earnings beat from J.B. Hunt (NASDAQ: JBHT). The transports were one of those sectors that sold off hard and still remain under their 200-day moving average.