Ok, so all OpEx weeks are crazy, but now we add in a FOMC meeting! This should get real wild, no?
According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, December OpEx week, S&P up 22 of the last 27 years. Looking good.
Tag Archive for 'S&P'
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Well the S&P eaked out a small gain even though the Eurozone is still a mess. Maybe the good news on the US economy might get top billing for a while. And maybe the techs will lead the way?
With a good retail sales and a decent PPI the markets diverged from Europe and recovered from a gap down. More news coming this week that will mix up an already crazy OpEx week….CPI, Industrial Production, Housing Starts, Philly Fed and Leading Indicators.
Volume has been light this week so far. I would think OpEx would kick it up a bit. Let’s see what happens WTF (Wed, Thu, Fri) 
Crazy days in the market…up down and all around. On Monday we closed near the highs, on Tuesday near the lows and then near the highs again today. The markets are different things to different traders…hope they’ve been good to you.
Futures are taking off in the early globex session….up up and away! The Dow and Nasdaq are flirting with their 200-day average, while the S&P and Russell are working to move up and get close. If the Eurozone makes a decision we should fly. Otherwise, up, down, up, down….
Netflix (NFLX) hits the skids tonight as they warn for the second quarter in a row about earnings, after the company’s fourth-quarter outlook was much worse than expected. Uh oh…are people going back to the movie theater? Probably not.
CEO Reed Hasting admitted the company “greatly upset many domestic Netflix members with our significant DVD-related pricing changes, and to a lesser degree, with the proposed-and-now-canceled re-branding of our DVD service.” The company said the larger-than-expected cancellations are to blame for the fourth-quarter warning.
Maybe it’s time for Hulu.
The S&P has sprung up almost 200 points since October 4th…there’s only been 4 down days since then. Do you think the markets may be getting tired? Time for pullback at least….even if it’s only a day!
A 3-day European rally…based on nothing but innuendo and blips of news. This sucks! Traders were bolstered by a possible solution in Europe…but it looked like lotsa traders were bargain hunting…as well as profit-taking.
Home prices being up helped a little, but the focus is on Europe….and the news was generally good. But about a helf hour to close, the indexes cut about half if their gains to end up in the middle of their range. Oh well, better than ending in the red!
We’ve got three day until the end of the third quarter and Rosh Hashanah on Thursday. Let’s look for selling as money managers square up their books and many traders take the rest of the week off.
Yes this market just hurts so bad! S&P futures markets came down to test 1100….and it may still not be done. There’s still the August low of 1072 to contend with. The markets are singing When Will I be Loved?
Looking like the market has created a ‘W’…but we need follow through and then breakthru that 1200 region in the S&P.
Although housing data wasn’t that good today, China’s PMI was good. Asian markets and the Eurozone lead us into a a very up day. Neither hurricanes, earthquakes nor Greenspan could stop the bulls. Volume was decent for a late summer rally.
Fat Bottomed Stocks make the world go round!
I thought the bounce would start sometime by the close, but you can’t always get what you want! And the selling in the ES futures continued into the evening. ES has sunk below 1100 last time I looked.
I did nibble on some TBT calls at a time I thought they may have bottomed, but, no such luck. I’m still sitting in them, underwater. So you can say I had a bad day.
It was an incredible day….The VIX advanced 50%, and although I was looking to short the VIX, I sat on my hands. SPY down 7.5%, yes in one day. The Russell was down almost 9% and the “winner” today was the Dow, down “only” 5.5%.
Some sector ETFs really got bruised: FAS the 3X financial bull ETF was down 30%, so the financial XLF was down over 10%. But Bank of America, BAC was down 22%…ouch! Oil and technology weren’t pretty at all.
So is it time for Turnaround Tuesday? China has some announcements overnight and those European PIIGS are still a pain in the ass. And let’s not forget, it’s time for FOMC meeting and announcement. Gee, what are the chances of a rate hike on Tuesday? 
After a 400 point range in the Dow, it ended up only 60 points. All the other indexes closed in the red. WTF?
Friday looked like massive margin calls and forced liquidations after the big run down on Thursday. Rumors began to circulate during the day that S&P was going to do what it finally did after hours…downgrade US debt. If the S&P knocked down the US debt, don’t they also knock down the holders of that debt?
Here’s the remaining countries with a triple A rating: Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. How far can they go with having “superior” debt? Buffett Says Cutting U.S. Rating Was Mistake, Sees No Recession.
The first reaction I had (as if anyone cared) is pass off all the US “peace-keeping” duties to these countries and let them take care of “us.” And quit “loaning” money to other countries. And quit giving money to people that haven’t put any money into the pot (read as welfare) …freeloaders! Sorry, I digress.
Here’s the S&P Ratings Report http://stk.ly/nzkwsU. Interesting reading.
Ok, back to trading. I’m definitely going to tread lightly. Futures this evening gapped down big…ES down 35 points, Dow down 325 pts. They have recovered about a third since the 6PM open. I’ve put bonds and the VIX on my short list via TBT calls and VIX puts. The metals may be a good short also via DZZ and ZSL, but I’ll put them in second place because I’ve been burned by them before.
Although only the Globex is open, Asia markets should open soon…and so far, it’s a pretty tame open for the past 2 hours. Maybe this was all baked in the previous two weeks?
Good luck on Monday and thanks for reading.
P.S. Just remember, if the Dow falls more than 30 percent (3600 pts), the market will close! Don’t think we get there, but keep it in mind?
Yes it was the worse day for the markets since December 2008! Just look at some of those numbers for just the 4 days of this week: Energy and Transportation down 10%; Russell down 9%; Banks down 8%; Semis down 7%…just ugly! Get a perspective here at A look at the Dow’s worst drops since 1900.
The VIX finally perked up with a 35% pop today and ES volume was enormous, relatively speaking with over 5 million ES contracts traded. Haven’t seen that since…well I don’t know when…but it’s been a long time!
And did you see the NYSE Advance/Decline volume? …-84:1 WOW! I guess traders aren’t going on vacation…they’re lurking!!
Sometimes, entranced by the screens, watching equities, options and futures change colors, charts moving in a wave, and indicators pointing in every direction, I just have to scream....
