Tag - Hth

Follow the money trail and usually you’ll find the answer to your investment questions. Last week the broad sectors of the market saw negative money flows led by the basic materials and utilities sectors, according to a market intelligence report out today by Susquehanna Financial.

According to the investment bank, the basic materials sector’s sell off was driven by money outflows from the iron/steel and mining subgroups. Within the utilities sector, electric and gas were the weakest subgroups.

Mortgage insurers were also very active last week, due to overwhelming purchases of puts across the industry group, according to the bank.

On a stock specific level, Susquehanna saw that BioLase Technology (Nasdaq: BLTI) had the greatest negative money flow last week. The other top five negative money flows were seen in Interstate Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: IHR), Rentrak Corp. (Nasdaq: RENT), Pegasystems Inc. (Nasdaq: PEGA) and Lenox Group (NYSE: LNX).

On the flipside, Harte-Hanks (NYSE: HHS) saw the greatest positive money flow last week, according to Susquehanna. Other top five positive money flows the bank observed were in Jos. A. Bank Clothiers (Nasdaq: JOS), BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: BCR), Hilltop Holdings (NYSE: HTH) and I.D. Systems (Nasdaq: IDSY).

As investors seek safety from an unrelenting weakening market, gold has continued to experience strong money inflows over the past weeks, according to Susquehanna.  With gold prices continually flirting with the $900 level, the bank has seen call buying across both gold equities and sector-based products.

The overall trend continues to remain volatile across most sectors, including consumer, energy and steel. According to Susquehanna, implied volatility levels have been generally heightened, as the market continues to tumble lower. The bank noted that the majority of the volatility selling it saw occurred close to the market open, with the order flow trailing off as the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) eased off its highs.