Yahoo Finance

Dow Inc., a leading materials science company, was spun off from DowDuPont on April 1, 2019. The company has 35,900 employees and manufacturing facilities in 31 countries. Dow focuses on products for the consumer care, infrastructure, and packaging markets.

Barrick Gold engages in the production and sale of gold, including exploration, development, mining, and processing and operate in 18 countries. Barrick was founded in 1983 and is based in Toronto.

The stock market continues to push higher, although the S&P 500 (SPX) failed to hold 6,000 for the fifth time since November 8. Once again, breadth was good and leadership was provided by the S&P 600 Small-Caps, which popped 1.8%, and the S&P 400 Mid-Caps, which tacked on 1.5%. The most-concentrated mega-cap indices -- such as the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) and S&P 100 -- lagged again, posting only minor gains. A few markets moved quite a bit, with the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) rising 2.5% and the 10-year yield dropping about 15 basis points to 4.26%. We previously suggested that the 10-year had reached an important level and a possible inflection point -- and with yesterday's action, we got our confirmation. Gold and silver futures plunged over 3%, while Bitcoin also fell over 3% to below $95,000; as expected, the big round number of $100,000 has provided a ceiling. Looking at a few of pieces of option data, the OEX open-interest ratio, which is total put open-interest divided by total call open-interest, remains very low. This is a non-contrarian sentiment indicator, as OEX option traders usually are quite good at identifying turning points in the market. When this ratio rises, OEX traders are becoming more bearish and vice versa -- and it's often a good idea to follow these astute investors. The CBOE equity-only put/call ratio is a contrarian sentiment reading, and the five-day has been very low for over the past two months, indicating a big appetite by smaller investors for call options. While this is concerning, generally we do not get a pullback or a correction until these investors re-verse course. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)

Corporate insiders appear content to run out the clock on 2024. With all the recent volatility (election results, interest-rate confusion, earnings season, and geopolitical issues), current insider-sentiment indicators from Vickers Stock Research sit squarely in the neutral camp. By way of detail, the neutral range for Vickers' sell/buy ratios runs from 2.00 up to 6.00. This week, the major one-week ratios are 4.19 (the Total, or all-exchanges ratio); 4.76 (for the NYSE); and 4.04 (for the Nasdaq). 'Neither a buyer nor a seller be' it would seem. One indicator does jump out this week and is forward looking. The number of Form 144s processed month-to-date by Vickers is 3197. This form is used by insiders to indicate an intent to sell restricted or control shares. The average full-month number of 144s processed by Vickers over the past six months is 2153 -- so a current reading of 3197 with another week to go in November is worth watching. The full-month number in November 2023 was 2460. On a sector basis, insider selling was the greatest in Technology over the last week, with shares valued at $717 million sold versus less than $6 million bought. Selling outpaced buying across all sectors last week. This week, analysts at Vickers highlighted insider transactions of interest at Oscar Health Inc. (NYSE: OSCR) and ThredUp Inc. (NGS: TDUP).