Trading thoughts, ideas, tips, musings, and pontifications. . .not necessarily in that order.
I’d have to say the markets had a bad day! It looked very promising with the major indexes up by more than 1%. But traders sure didn’t like the FOMC announcement at 2:15PM. Indexes deteriorated as an initial reaction and continued down. There was a small pop going into the close, but basically a bad day.
So tomorrow we’ll be halfway thru this Opex week. With December OpEx week being up 22 of the last 27 years, there’s a lot of points to make up.
There is going to be a lot of words thrown about this week. Besides the eco reports, PPI, CPI, Housing Starts and Philly Fed Survey, there’s a Fed governor speaking every day…sometimes twice a day. The markets will be listening with one ear towards the FOMC gobbledygook and the other ear aimed at Europe. And the markets will get squeezed in the middle!
Don’t forget, it’s OpEx week as well. What a recipe for volatility! 
That’s what traders are thinking….fu! Shifting from short term to longer term bonds and standing still on interest rates? That’s your way of working through a recession/depression?
Even better-than-expected Existing Home Sales couldn’t help. And the strong tech sector finally gave it up also. Looks like we may get some downside follow-through on Thursday. Oh my:!:
Earlier this evening, news broke that Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO of AAPL. It looks like he’ll stay on as chairman, but the stock sold off hard afterhours. It will be interesting to watch this over the next couple of days.
Indexes had a lacksidasical opening and chopped around breakeven until the last hour, when a push put them solidly in the plus column. Volume was less than impressive.
Gold bugs were squashed as margin calls went out on the biggest gold drop since 2008, sending the gold bugs scurrying for cash. Buyers of gold last week or even yesterday, are hurting today…bitch-slapped more like it!
Is it Friday yet? With only 2 days remaining until the highly anticipated Jackson Hole speech, it seems that investors have grown weary of waiting. Is everyone expecting a QE3 type speech?
Oh Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be… It started so nice at the open, at the highs of the day, but it was all downhill after that. The indexes closed back at breakeven…or thereabouts!
Looks like all the market moving news will be coming from Asia or Europe…until Friday…when Ben Bernanke will give a speech from Ass Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Traders are expecting another QE launch, like last year. So we sit and wait.
Wow, gold $1900! Does it feel toppy yet? GS Blankfein hires a high-powered defense attorney…uh oh! Did you see GS dive near the end of day? Seems like all that matters is news and rumors. 
“Obama said the housing market may not pick up again for another year or longer. On the bright side, President Obama now has nine people interested in his house.” — Conan O’Brien
So is QE3 coming or not? Maybe not, but the “Bernanke put” is back! A song comes to mind… Welcome Back My Friends to the Show that Never Ends. We regained two-thirds of what we lost yesterday, so that’s nice….but why? Stealth QE3 Is Upon Us, how Ben did it and what it means.
It was definitely a rollercoaster day as indexes moved in both directions all day long. It took about an hour to go from the low of the session to the high, closing near the highs…and the futures continued to go up after the cash close. Boy was that last half hour ever exciting!!
Volume was the highest in the last 3 days and the VIX returned about half what it gained yesterday. Some wild and crazy action for the last 2+ weeks…it’s getting frustrating. 
Are we done or are we not? Reading this New York Fed release, Statement Regarding Purchases of Treasury Securities, it looks like it will continue as a “once-a-month” version. At least for a while, maybe the next Jackson Hole get together, and then announce something a bit more definite.
The day was mediocre, low volume, no action until the last 90 minutes, when everything just went down. The indexes hung around breakeven all day, but when Ben Bernanke explained how awful our economy will be for the next 2 years, traders bailed. Oh well, there goes out 4 day winning streak!
Hey, looky there….4 up days in a row! I could get used to this. But, we should be so lucky to see a continuation of this. Of course, we did do 6 down in a row, so turnabout is fair play. 
Been sitting on my hands though missing this run up as I concentrate on other things around the office. Still like to keep track as I practice swing trading in my simulated accounts.
Big FOMC news conference on Wednesday will gather everyone’s attention. Let’s see how that acts out. Be careful out there.
Yes, another low volume Monday like we’ve had for the past 2 months. But, this one closed in the green! So that’s a change of character…for the bulls maybe?
A news driven week coming up with lots of Housing news, and FOMC meeting and press conference, GDP and Durable Goods reports all on tap. Should see a lot of spurts and drips all week long.
Let’s not forget all the Greece news also. I found this article explaining a lot of what is at stake with that little country: Did You Know Greece’s Economy is Smaller Than Michigan’s?
First there was a five week losing streak, now a five day losing streak….just doesn’t seem right…unless of course we’re in a bear market. The S&P sure looks like it has the 200MA in its sights.
We haven’t had 5 down days in a very long time. Is 6 down days in the cards? What about 6 down weeks?
The close surprised me today. I didn’t think the Bernanke speech would have such a big affect. Who the hell scheduled a speech at 3:45PM?
| INDU | 0.00 | |||||||
| NASDAQ | 2905.66 | |||||||
| S&P 500 | 1344.90 | |||||||
| ^RUT | 831.11 | |||||||
| QID | 36.382 | |||||||
| QQQ | 62.05 | |||||||
| QLD | 100.36 | |||||||
| TZA | 18.3401 | |||||||
| SSO | 53.15 | |||||||
| SDS | 16.758 | |||||||
| BGZ | 23.5037 | |||||||
| BGU | 75.50 | |||||||
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