May | 2014 | TheAcsMan

Daily Market Update – May 1, 2014 (9:15 AM)

With only the Employment Situation Report left to go for the week, this was a relatively busy one on the news front compared to recent weeks and even months.

The market’s gains for the week are already enough for a really good week and there are still two days to go, including that one hurdle. Knowing that the remaining hurdle hasn’t been much of a hurdle puts focus on today as being an important one for the remainder of the week.

While already having some new hedge positions opened for the week I would be very happy seeing additional ones join them, particularly as it was another slow week as far as opening new positions goes and those are the usual source of income flow for each week. Of course, then there’s always the hope to see some combination of rollovers and assignments to round out the income stream and create the seeds for the coming week.

I’ve learned over the years, especially after an FOMC Wednesday that left me looking to be in good position to end the week, not to assume or expect that will be the way it all ends.

If I had been superstitious I would have made some comment about jinxing things, but some things are just better left unsaid.

The morning’s pre-trades are pointing to a lackluster kind of open and that would certainly be acceptable if that was the tone for the rest of the week.

However, since you never know and since tomorrow has the potential to have some volatility due to the data release, whatever opportunities appear to pop up today for rollovers may end up being done today rather than taking chances with an unpredictable report or more likely, an unpredictable reaction from the market.

While the DJIA did set a new record in the closing seconds of trading, the S&P 500 is within easy reach of doing the same, perhaps being the equivalent of another 50 Dow points away from its top.

The past two years has
shown that as the market approaches a new record it doesn’t shy away. It does more than just test the level, as technicians would put it. It tends to go through and usually does so without fanfare. As opposed to those kinds of records in the past when the market would make a forceful statement and surge past those technical resistance points, these days it just shrugs as it passes and simply moves higher.

That may be why we don’t see much in the way of corrections. There isn’t much in the way of gap moves higher. Such slow and steady for the most part.

That’s not a bad way to go, whether with individual stocks or markets.