April 5, 2015 The Week Ahead

The S&P 500 closed the week relatively flat. Which doesn’t really come as a surprise, given we had a shortened week. However, we should see activity pick up again as earnings season is around the corner.

The VIX also finished the week relatively flat, closing at 14.54. We could see volatility creep back into the markets. Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is meeting with IMF chief Christine Lagarde today in Washington. This is ahead of their April 9 deadline, in which they owe a payment to the IMF. Any whispers of Greece leaving the Euro could cause a spike in volatility.

The big news this week was that Iran and world leaders reached a nuclear accord. The United States Oil Fund ETF (USO) closed the week slightly higher. It’s now $2 off it’s 52 week low, trading at $17.54 per share.

Here’s what’s on schedule this week:

Key Economic Data:
8 April 2015- FOMC Minutes 2:00 PM ET
9 April 2015- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
7 April 2015- PLAY
8 April 2015- FDO, RAD, AA APOG, BBBY, PIR
9 April 2015- WBA, STZ

We’ll be back on Tuesday with the market update. Have a Happy Easter Sunday for those celebrating the holiday today.

April 2, 2015 Market Wrap Up

The S&P 500 closed the day higher; however, the action was rather anemic. This should come to no surprise given that there is no trading tomorrow.

The VIX sold off over 3%, closing at 14.59.

For those stock market junkies trying to find something to trade, it was probably in the energy sector. What the market’s eye was a story that Iran would agree to dilute or ship a majority of their enriched Uranium. Of course, this sent crude oil prices lower.

In addition, we saw weakness in the refiners, such as, Valero Energy Corporation (VLO) -5.75% and Tesoro Corporation (TSO) -5.15% to name a few.

For those event-driven traders, we saw heavy selling action in Motorola Solutions, Inc. (MSI) -6.24% The move was attributed to a story stating that the company was having difficulty finding a buyer.

On the options front we saw bullish call buying in Markwest Energy Partners LP (MWE). However, there wasn’t nearly as much notable action as we’re used to seeing.

Here’s what’s left on the schedule. Remember, US Markets are closed this Friday.

Economic Data:
3 April 2015- Employment Situation 8:30 AM ET

March 31, 2015 Market Wrap Up

The S&P 500 closed the day negative; however, the first quarter of 2015 was a positive one. Today was another one of those painfully slow days in the market. Frankly, the most interesting part of the day was all the malfunctions we saw in the exchanges, causing several ETFs to halt and resume trading many times. For example, ProShares Ultra VIX Short Term Futures (UVXY) was halted nearly 10 times due to glitches.

Given the sell off, it was no surprise to see the VIX up over 5%, closing at 15.29. In addition, Crude Oil prices sold off about 2%, closing the quarter down 10%.

Option activity was rather light. However, we did see some bullish option flow in Walmart Stores Inc (WMT), Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI), and Caesars Entertainment Corporation (CZR). On the bearish side, we saw heavy put buying late in the day in General Motors Company (GM).

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March 27, 2015 Market Wrap Up

The S&P 500 closed the day positive; however, the action was rather choppy. In fact, it was a painfully slow day, with very light volume. For those who remained patient, we did see some fireworks when a Wall Street Journal report indicated that Intel (INTC) were in talks to buy Altera Corp. (ALTR). ALTR shot up over 28% and INTC closed 6% higher.

Despite the uncertainty, the VIX managed to sell off nearly 5%, closing at 15.07.

Right before the close, FED Chair Janet Yellen made remarks regarding interest rates. It appeared that she might have back pedaled on when they plan on raising rates. One striking comment she made was- “Generally anticipate that a rather gradual rise in the federal funds rate will be appropriate over the next few years.”

In other news today, the crude oil market sold off rather hard and closed below $50 per barrel, the first down day this week. Despite the sell off, crude oil futures were up nearly 5% on the week. Many believe this is attributed to the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

We’ll be back on Sunday for The Week Ahead Report.

March 24, 2015 Market Wrap Up

The S&P 500 closed negative for the second day in a row. However, volume has been rather anemic. With that said, we did see some strong housing data, as new home sales saw a rise of 8% in the month of February. The VIX was trading sub-13 for a good portion of the day, but started to gain momentum as the market started to sell off, closing at 13.62.

Some of the big movers today included Twitter (TWTR) and EBay Inc (EBAY). Last night Twitter announced that they would be testing out autoplay videos and video ads. The stock rose more than 6%. Both stocks saw heavy call buying activity. Twitter saw 2.7 times usual options volume and EBay saw 2 times usual options volume. During the day we heard some rumors of Alibaba possibly taking an interest EBay; a lot of the time this is just market noise. However, that doesn’t mean that stocks can’t move off it.

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March 22, 2015 The Week Ahead

The S&P 500 closed the week strong, at 2,108, up over 50 points. For a couple of moments on Friday the VIX was no longer a teenager; however, it closed at 13.02. Crude Oil futures closed the week at 5-day high, it’s first weekly gain in over a month.

As of now, the market looks very strong, let’s take a look at what’s on schedule this week.

Economic Data:

23 March 2015- Existing Home Sales 10 AM ET
24 March 2015- Consumer Price Index 8:30 AM ET, New Home Sales 10 AM ET
25 March 2015- Durable Goods 8:30 AM ET
26 March 2015- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET
27 March 2015- GDP 8:30 AM ET

Conferences:

23 March 2015- Barclays Metals & Materials Conference, Howard Weil Energy Conference
24 March 2015- Morgan Stanley European Financials Conference, Telsey Advisory Consumer Conference
25 March 2015- Facebook Developer Conference

Key Earnings:

23 March 2015- DGLY
25 March 2015- APOL, FRAN, FIVE, PSUN, PVH
26 March 2015- ACN, CMC, LULU, GME
27 March 2015- BBRY, FINL

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March 19, 2015 Market Recap

The S&P 500 closed down today, after a monster rally yesterday, following the FOMC announcement. However, the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 finished positive on the day. All in all, the S&P 500 is up over 35 points since Monday’s open.

Apple INC (AAPL), made it’s debut on the Dow Jones Industrials, closing down, at $127.45 per share.

The VIX got whamboozled yesterday, and is now trading at 14.07.

Crude Oil sold off, closing below $44. Again, traders have been trying to pick a bottom in energy for several months now. However, energy continues to stay weak.

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March 17, 2015 Market Recap

The S&P 500 closed down today, on a rather dull Saint Patricks Day. All eyes will be on the FOMC announcement and whether or not the FED will be changing their tone pertaining to interest rates. For a while now, they’ve hinted that they’ll be raising rates in either June or September. With that said, they’ve given the market enough time to prepare, but we’ll have to wait for the market’s reaction.

The VIX closed the day slightly positive, finishing at 15.66. Again, this is neither a high or low level on the VIX. However, we could see a massive spike tomorrow in either direction, depending on how the market reacts to the FOMC announcement.

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March 12, 2015 Market Wrap Up

The market snapped back from a two day losing streak, with the S&P 500 closing at 2065.95 today. The move was attributed to the Fed’s “stress test” results. With most of the financials and banks passing with flying colors. The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF), was up over 2%, closing at $24.49 per share.

In addition, some of the air was let out of the balloon in the VIX, which was down over 8%, closing at 15.42.

The United States Oil Fund LP (ETF), (USO), sold off nearly 2%, closing at 17.44. It’s now down nearly 7% over the last week. Ironically, weak oil prices was used as an excuse to justify the sell off we saw in the equity markets on Tuesday. Apparently, weaker oil prices was a non-factor today.

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March 10, 2015 Market Wrap Up

The market gapped down this morning, and stayed down the whole day. The S&P 500 dropped over 35 pts, closing at 2044.77. The move was large enough to erase the year-to-date gains in the S&P 500.

There was no clear catalyst on why the market sold off. One could come up with several reasons for today’s sell off. However, it seemed pretty controlled vs. a panicky sell off.

For instance, the VIX was up over 10.82%, closing the day at 16.69. The high on the year is over 22, back in January, which we still have a long way to go before we start to see some real fear in the market.

The United States Oil Fund LP (ETF), (USO), sold off more than 2.4%, closing at 17.91. It’s now down more than 25% over the last three months.

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