PreMarket Prep Recap: Bull And Bears, Tesla Falls Short

On Thursday's PreMarket Prep show, the team surveyed the damage from the last two sessions. Co-host Dennis Dick was looking for a turn in the market, identifying a few issues that are on his "buy" radar.

On the other hand, guest Marc Chaikin of Chaikin Analytics was taking the other side of the trade and was bearish heading into Thursday's open.

Bull Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered

One reason for Dick's optimism: many of the momentum stocks that led the charge higher in August held up fairly well in Wednesday's decline.

And many of the stocks cited had "at least stoped going down." For example, Roku Inc (NASDAQ) ended well off its low for the day of $99.96 at $102.62 and slightly in the green, exhibiting excellent relative strength.

Even a beaten-down Canopy Growth Corp CGC, bottomed just below a trio of lows from late April at $20.59 and rebounded to close at $21.98 on Wednesday. 

As always, Dick identified his exit points in any of bullish trades he was going to take as the recent lows for the move.

Early in the session, his bullishness was being rewarded until the USA ISM non-manufacturing PMI came in much lower than-expected at 52.6, well below the estimate of 55.

Trump Has Chaikin Bearish

Taking the other side of the trade was the usually bullish Chaikin, who viewed price action in the momos as short covering versus new longs coming into the market.

The geopolitical landscape makes Chaikin fearful, and in his view it begins with President Donald Trump — specifically Trump's obsession with the looming threat of impeachment, and a stalemate in the trader war with China that's distracting from the financial markets. 

Chaikin's prediction for the downside action was aided by the ISM non-manufacturing data, but the move substantially lower was derailed by Trump. who once again come out to defend the markets.

The president's statement that he was talking "nice" with North Korea and reiterating that the China delegation will be coming next week for trade talks ignited a ferocious rally off the intraday low.

Tesla Deliveries Do Not Live Up To The Hype

Earlier in the week, a leaked internal email from Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk said the company "has a shot" at delivering 100,000 cars this quarter.

That wasn't the case, as the deliveries came in at 97,000 on Wednesday. With the issue in the middle of its trading range ($200-$250), the after-hours was identified as a potential support ($228.43), but it easily breached that level, falling to $224.28 before staging a rebound.

Brokers Not Getting Any Love From Wells Fargo

A few days too late for investors, Well Fargo downgraded Charles Schwab Corporation SCHW, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. AMT and E*Trade Financial Corp EFTC.

Friday's Show

On Friday's show, Greg Harmon of Dragonfly Capital Management will join the show and survey the technical damage to the markets this week.

PreMarket Prep is a daily trading show hosted by prop trader Dennis Dick and former floor trader Joel Elconin. You can watch PreMarket Prep live every day from 8-9 a.m. ET here. The replay can be found on Benzinga's YouTube channel, and the podcast is on iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Stitcher and Tunein.

Related Links: 

PreMarket Prep Recap: Rough Start To The Quarter, Brokerage Wars, Timing is Everything

PreMarket Prep Recap: End-Of-Quarter Price Action, Insider Buying Strategies