Category Archives: Daily Market Update

Daily Market Update – June 1, 2015  (Close)

After a week of absolutely no direction and no theme, there’s not too much reason to believe that this week will be much different.

Other than on Friday, when the Employment Situation Report is released, there’s really not too much scheduled news and the market could find itself going back and forth as it did last week.

This week appeared to be getting ready to get off on the other foot, though, as the pre-open futures was pointing moderately higher. That follows a week where the bias was to the downside and then cemented there as the GDP Report was released on Friday.

This week’s Employment Situation Report could put the FOMC in an interesting position in the event that employment data is strong, as it was last month.

Somehow they would have to deal with conflicting pieces of economic information in deciding whether there is sufficient and valid enough data to make a decision to raise interest rates. With the GDP indicating that the economy was shrinking more than expected, but in the light of job growth, you would have to scratch your head in trying to understand how those would be occurring concurrently.

I’ll let them work that out while I think about other things.

Mostly, that will be the usual kind of things. The only difference is that after last week of no new trades and only a single position needing a rollover, it would really be nice to do something more meaningful this week.

While I would like to see the cash reserve pile grow even more, I would like to add some new positions this week to complement the 3 positions that are set to expire this week.

It was nice, at least for now, to have added some new positions, all three of which had dividends in the equation.  For now, I want dividends as an offset to risk.

While the early bias to start the week does look as if it will be higher, it’s still difficult to know what will be responsible for propelling markets higher. It’s also difficult to know just how the market will respond to news in general. Will they be disappointed by bad news, as was the case with last week’s GDP or would they be elated about bad news, as they would have responded about a month or so ago, to the very same news.

For the moment it appears as if the market is discounting a very small interest rate increase and is expressing disappointment with anything that might actually delay that increase. Last month the disappointment was if anything appeared to be accelerating that increase.

For its part, the bond market isn’t as effusive about rates going up sooner, rather than later, as it was just 2 weeks ago.

In essence, no one really has any clue as to what is next and how we will respond. But just to confuse things even more, the bond market returned to its belief that rates were heading higher and did so in a big way today.

This week, at least has a large number of ex-dividend positions to keep some income flowing in and in a small way maybe off-setting last week’s drought, but that represents passivity. Hopefully, there will be some good reason for actively pursuing some income and profits this week, without adding on too much risk in the process.

Daily Market Update – June 1, 2015  (8:30 AM)

After a week of absolutely no direction and no theme, there’s not too much reason to believe that this week will be much different.

The Week in Other than on Friday, when the Employment Situation Report is released, there’s really not too much scheduled news and the market could find itself going back and forth as it did last week.

This week appears to be getting ready to get off on the other foot, though, as the pre-open futures is pointing moderately higher. That follows a week where the bias was to the downside and then cemented there as the GDP Report was released on Friday.

This week’s Employment Situation Report could put the FOMC in an interesting position in the event that employment data is strong, as it was last month.

Somehow they would have to deal with conflicting pieces of economic information in deciding whether there is sufficient and valid enough data to make a decision to raise interest rates. With the GDP indicating that the economy was shrinking more than expected, but in the light of job growth, you would have to scratch your head in trying to understand how those would be occurring concurrently.

I’ll let them wotk that out while I think about other things.

Mostly, that will be the usual kind of things. The only difference is that after last week of no new trades and only a single position needing a rollover, it would really be nice to do something more meaningful this week.

While I would like to see the cash reserve pile grow even more, I would like to add some new positions this week to complement the 3 positions that are set to expire this week.

While the early bias to start the week does look as if it will be higher, it’s still difficult to know what will be responsible for propelling markets higher. It’s also difficult to know just how the market will respond to news in general. Will they be disappointed by bad news, as was the case with last week’s GDP or would they be elated about bad news, as they would have responded about a month or so ago, to the very same news.

For the moment it appears as if the market is discounting a very small interest rate increase and is expressing disappointment with anything that might actually delay that increase. Last month the disappointment was if anything appeared to be accelerating that increase.

For its part, the bond market isn’t as effusive about rates going up sooner, rather than later, as it was just 2 weeks ago.

In essence, no one really has any clue as to what is next and how we will respond.

This week, at least has a large number of ex-dividend positions to keep some income flowing in and in a small way maybe off-setting last week’s drought, but that represents passivity. Hopefully, there will be some good reason for actively pursuing some income and profits this week, without adding on too much risk in the process.

Daily Market Update – May 29, 2015  (8:00 AM)

The Week in Revew will be posted by 6 PM and the Weekend Update will be posted by noon on Sunday.

It was hard to understand what happened on Tuesday, just as it was hard to understand exactly what happened yesterday.

The following trade outcomes are possible today:

Assignments:  none

Rollovers:  none

Expirations:   none

The following were ex-dividend this week:  ANF (5/29 $0.20), RIG (5/27 $0.15)

The following will be ex-dividend next week:  HAL (6/1 $0.18), JOY (6/2 $0.20), MOS (6/2 $0.275), BAC (6/3 $0.05), COH (6/3 $0.34), HFC (6/3 $0.33)

Trades, if any, will be attempted to be made prior to 3:30 PM EDT

Daily Market Update – May 28, 2015  (Close)

It was hard to understand what happened on Tuesday, just as it was hard to understand exactly what happened yesterday.

Yesterday’s market wasn’t exactly an equal and opposite reaction, but at least it was noticeable in the correction to the previous day.

It still, however, doesn’t leave us anywhere other than continuing to be on that big piece of plywood delicately balanced on the head of a nail.

The pre-open futures was again poised to offer virtually nothing in the form of direction as I was getting ready to scan positions this morning. Today looked as if it would be bringing me one more step closer to a week with no trades, other than the early assignment of one position.

But somehow that market vectors Gold Miners ETF got yet another rollover. That as its 20 trade overall in the past 6 months.

While I do like the additional cash, it has been a frustrating week. Although I wasn’t expecting to make many trades and already aware that there was little to be rolled over this holiday shortened week, the very few trades that I’ve tried to make haven’t materialized. Even the one rollover couldn’t get executed yesterday.

With now just one day left in this week my expectations are low, but it will be very interesting to see how tomorrow’s GDP figure will look, as well as how the markets will react to it.

Any suggestion that the economy is heating up, or is on a stronger path than had been earlier indicated, is likely to be met with a bad market reaction. Following Tuesday’s sell off, it may not take much to tip over that perfectly balanced sheet of plywood.

With this week being a virtual wasteland and no activity, my eyes are on next week and hoping to be able to do something with the cash on hand as well as something with the few positions already set to expire next Friday.

Hopefully the next couple of days will show some more consistency and allow some more strategic planning. The back and forth that we’ve seen over the past few weeks, while occasionally setting some new record highs, isn’t the kind that creates confidence, nor does it create a strong support level for the market to climb even higher.

Still, as unhealthy as it seems, you do have to admire the way the market has been able to stick in and respond to every challenge with a new effort to recover.

I’m willing to do that, but I’d be much more willing if I could be a much more active participant.

That doesn’t look to be the case today or maybe not even tomorrow, but there’s always next week. At least then we have an Employment Situation Report and some FOMC Governors speaking to liven things up a little and maybe even get the futures back into the game.

,

Daily Market Update – May 28, 2015  (8:00 AM)

It was hard to understand wat happened on Tuesday, just as it was hard to understand exactly what happened yesterday.

Yesterday’s market wasn’t exactly an equal and opposite reaction, but at least it was noticeable in the correction to the previous day.

It still, however, doesn’t leave us anywhere other than continuing to be on that big piece of plywood delicately balanced on the head of a nail.

The pre-open futures is again poised to offer virtually nothing in the form of direction as getting ready to scan positions this morning. Today brings me one more step closer to a week with no trades, other than the early assignment of one position.

While I do like the additional cash, it has been a frustrating week. Although I wasn’t expecting to make many trades and already aware that there was little to be rolled over this holiday shortened week, the very few trades that I’ve tried to make haven’t materialized. Even the one rollover couldn’t get executed yesterday.

With just two days left in this week my expectations are low, but it will be very interesting to see how tomorrow’s GDP figure will look, as well as how the markets will react to it.

Any suggestion that the economy is heating up, or is on a stronger path than had been earlier indicated, is likely to be met with a bad market reaction. Following Tuesday’s sell off, it may not take much to tip over that perfectly balanced sheet of plywood.

With this week being a virtual wasteland and no activity, my eyes are on next week and hoping to be able to do something with the cash on hand as well as something with the few positions already set to expire next Friday.

Hopefully the next couple of days will show some more consistency and allow some more strategic planning. The back and forth that we’ve seen over the past few weeks, while occasionally setting some new record highs, isn’t the kind that creates confidence, nor does it create a strong support level for the market to climb even higher.

Still, as unhealthy as it seems, you do have to admire the way the market has been able to stick in and respond to every challenge with a new effort to recover.

I’m willing to do that, but I’d be much more willing if I could be a much more active participant.

That doesn’t look to be the case today or maybe not even tomorrow, but there’s always next week. At least then we have an Employment Situation Report and some FOMC Governors speaking to liven things up a little and maybe even get the futures back into the game.

,